PFF not impressed with Chicago Bears entering Week 9 matchup with Bengals

Pro Football Focus isn’t high on the Chicago Bears entering Week 9 against the Bengals. Here’s where the team stands in PFF’s Week 9 NFL Power Rankings.

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The stench of Week 8's loss to the Baltimore Ravens is beginning to wash off the Chicago Bears, but the lingering impact on the team's narrative remains.

Caleb Williams wasn't great last week. At least, that was the knee-jerk reaction immediately after the game.

Coach Ben Johnson squashed some of those concerns by saying Williams played better in Week 8 than he had in the previous few games.

Still, the Bears squandered an opportunity to win their fifth game in a row, and remain one of the hard-to-predict teams entering Week 9.

In fact, they're losing some of the mojo they seemed to gain across football media.

Take this week's NFL Power Rankings from Pro Football Focus, where the Bears dropped two spots from No. 18 to No. 20.

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"The Bears couldn’t slow down a Tyler Huntley-led offense, while also failing to consistently move the ball against a poor Ravens defense," PFF's Thomas Valentine wrote. "That’s concerning on two fronts, but the sky certainly isn’t falling in Chicago just yet. Sure, Caleb Williams’ performances have been a little disjointed in recent weeks, but it’s early days in the Ben Johnson era. The Bears are top 20 in EPA per play on both sides of the ball. Incremental progress."

Progress is the main point, here.

Indeed, today's NFL is vicious. Patience is a lost virtue, especially when it comes to quarterbacks.

But if there's any franchise that can be patient with QB development, it's the Chicago Bears.

Bears Nation has become too used to quarterbacks flaming out after a few seasons. And those few seasons are usually low-lighted by a lack of development (see: Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields). As long as Caleb Williams is getting better, it's a big win for the franchise.

For now, the Bears must stack on-field wins to keep the content vultures at bay. It begins on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, who could be without Joe Flacco, making it a must-win contest for Chicago's potential playoff hopes.

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