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Bear Digest

Remarkable Bears Stat Says Opposing Secondaries Face a Long Year

The number of Bears targets and the ability to get the ball to different people in the run game and passing attack were apparent with one number.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears tight end Colston Loveland was expected to be their top target after a year when he led in catches and yards but was shut out on Sunday.
Bears tight end Colston Loveland was expected to be their top target after a year when he led in catches and yards but was shut out on Sunday. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Even with 59 point scored, the Bears insisted a day later that their win over the Carolina Panthers was far from perfect.

Achieved in extreme heat and humidity, on the road yet, they saw numerous mistakes on film but a few real points of interest said the rest of the NFL could be in trouble unless they come ready to outscore Ben Johnson's explosive offense on any given Sunday.

Luther Burden was held relatively in check with five catches for 63 yards, but far more amazingly, tight end Colston Loveland didn't make a single reception after being targeted only twice. Loveland was easily the player most highly touted for the Bears beyond Caleb Williams, with Burden close behind. Loveland had been the darling of fantasy football owners everywhere and hadn't gone without a catch since the second game of last season against Detroit.

"We got a lot of weapons, so I mean, the ball goes to whoever," wide receiver Jahdae Walker said Monday. "We all are capable of making plays and that just shows how deep our room in our receiver and offensive rooms are."

Kalif Raymond made up for some of the lack of receptions from Loveland with a career-high eight receptions. It's hard to believe that Raymond could have been in Detroit and never made more than five receptions in a game with his skill set but it's true.

Cole Kmet made a spectacular TD catch and Jahdae Walker added one. If the Bears can't get it to someone, they just will turn to one of the other targets.

Checking down

When they couldn't get it to Raymond, Williams checked it down to a back instead of his favorite target, Loveland. By doing that, Williams might have realized what he needs to do to get to a better place with completion percentage without surrendering many big plays.

"I mean, it goes back, Caleb and I were talking about it the night before the game, just his conversation with Drew Brees, who ended up calling our game," Johnson said on Monday. "Just the difference between 60 percent and 70 percent (completions). He (Brees) said the difference is three completions a game. And he turned on our tape and it's kind of like, that might've stuck with our guy (Williams) a little bit, which was cool to see.

"Couple checkdowns to the backs were good plays for us. There's a couple of times where the primary's not there and you can see him reset to the middle of the field where No. 2 was, and he ended up dotting that for 5-yard gains a couple times. I thought he had some really nice throwaways when the plays weren't there. It was smart with the football."

There was one other thing Williams did wisely.

"The scramble in general, we had a lot more production than maybe we would have had in the past," Johnson said. "And so that was encouraging to see as well."

In the end, it's possible to shut down the top Bears targets to some extent but it means giving away so much else and defenses will simply need to pick their poison. The Panthers chose to get run on and Loveland was only too glad to provide part of the blocking in a league-leading rushing attack for Week 1.

"It starts with the O-line always," Johnson said. "But the tight ends and those receivers were a big part of the explosive runs as well. It’s a credit to all those guys."

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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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