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Bear Digest

Perhaps It's Time for Ben Johnson and the Bears to Get Serious

Even with Caleb Williams, the first team offense and most of the first-team defense playing, the Bears struggled in numerous ways in a 27-9 preseason loss.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bengals wide receiver Colbie Young catches a pass for a touchdown against Bears cornerback Dontae Manning in the first half.
Bengals wide receiver Colbie Young catches a pass for a touchdown against Bears cornerback Dontae Manning in the first half. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Let the panic begin. Sure, it's too early, but it will start nonetheless.

There's little doubt the Bears used quarterback Caleb Williams and starters against Cincinnati because they wanted to see sharper play than in Thursday's practice against the Bengals, especially by their offense.

From that end, they failed to meet their chief objective or numerous other ones in Saturday's 27-9 preseason loss to the Bengals.

The starting offense played one series and produced a 45-yard Cairo Santos field goal, but Williams was unsteady and went 2-of-5 for 28 yards. He missed a wide-open TD to tight end Colston Loveland in the process.

If the Bears had one other offensive objective it was seeing left tackle Braxton Jones block well. His actual blocks will be better left to grades from the film, but Jones was called for holding on a running play and the penalty helped kill what could have been a touchdown drive on the first team's only possession. He also got driven back into the passer by a bull rusher, a self-admitted problem of his while pass blocking.

Their left tackle situation did anythin but become more clear with this performance.

The running game inched along without a breakaway run, as Roschon Johnson started and gained 11 yards on three attempts behind the starting line. Johnson kept playing and finished with 42 yards on 12 carries.

If Ben Johnson wanted anything out of the game it was more consistency on offense after the 34-10 preseason opening win over Cleveland but the Bears went 1-for-7 on third down conversions in the first half and finished the game with 11 penalties for 81 yards.

Defense just as unsuccessful

The Bears' first team defense didn't play in its entirety, but the remnants of it after a rash of training camp injuries did see time.

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen used a mix of starters and backups, and pulled almost all of them by the second Cincinnati series. The exceptions were Gervon Dexter and Dayo Odeyingbo playing with backups against former Bears QB Josh Johnson and the backup Bengals offense.

The starters on defense allowed a drive to an Evan McPherson 25-yard field goal, and later the backups gave up three touchdowns and a field goal. Defensive back Dontae Manning got burned twice for touchdowns, one a 17-yarder to Colbie Young by Johnson and another for 20 yards by Sean Clifford to Noah Thomas. The other TD pass was a 6-yarder by Johnson given up by Bears safety Skyler Thomas to Tanner Hudson. Thomas did get a bit of revenge late in the game with an interception.

Even the special teams performance was lackluster. Cairo Santos missed a 53-yard second-half field goal try, his second field goal miss in preseason.

If the Bears wanted to get starters on the field for the preseason finale, no one would question it after this performance. It's unlikely to impact what Johnson decides, though.

Johnson let tight ends coach Jim Dray and defensive backs coach Al Harris call plays in the second half. They had no more success than Johnson and Dennis Allen in the first half.

It might be time to junk the gimmicks and legacy talk in order to focus on getting ready for the regular season. It's becoming larger and larger on the horizon.

They'll get two straight days off now before practicing again at Halas Hall to play Tennessee in the preseason finale. They need to come back and be a more serious, competitive football team.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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