The Chicago Bears continue to follow in the footsteps of the Baltimore Ravens by dominating the preseason. Those second team players don't stand a chance. While it is easy to overhype this team based on numbers such as the final score (27-3) there are a few concerns we can infer about this team moving forward.
Writing an article about the Bears/Bengals preseason game presented me with a couple of challenges. The first of which being that I did not watch the game. I can already hear the boos through my laptop. I was at my brother-in-law's bachelor party (it was great) and we had a lot going on - which because of that, I was in rough shape Sunday and Monday. Maybe I am a bit closer to thirty than I'd like to think. Not having seen this game I chose to go by the numbers and see what I conclusions I can draw.
Caleb Williams was 6 for 13 with 75 total yards. As much as I hate to keep bringing up Justin Fields, it is really hard not to draw comparisons. Williams started the game with three incompletions. Yikes. He also made a hero's throw to Rome Odunze for 45 yards. Yay? That throw doesn't matter within the context of weak pocket presence and multiple incompletions. I need consistency from my QB. I cannot find any specifics statistics but I do have a feeling he held on to the ball for way too long. This game sounds like a misstep for Williams but I think he can develop better confidence the more he plays. I will praise him for allowing zero turnovers. That does seem like an improvement over Fields. Credit to Eberflus for leaving Williams in for longer than he planned after the consecutive three and outs.
Tyson Bagent orchestrated three scoring drives. I called it last week, well, I called it the first week. Tyson Bagent is QB2. He had a tough showing in the HOF game but he completed 7 out of 8 passes for 87 yards and threw two TD's in the Bengals game after bouncing back in the Bills game. I am fully confident with Bagent at QB2. I'll just try not to dwell on the fact that he was facing other backups on defense...
Velus Jones JR stunk. An average of 2.2 yards per carry is bad. But, within the context of this game being called as a mostly passing offense - it doesn't seem so bad. I still have confidence in Velus Jones JR to make an RB position, no one is arguing that he will be RB1 but I think he'll grow into a RB role.
Our defense ROCKS. Seeing that we scored 13 points from takeaways was my favorite part of reading about this game. The two most notable players for me were Kyler Gordon who recorded 4 tackles and a sack, and Terrell Smith who returned an interception for 19 yards. If this is an indication of our first team then the Monsters of the Midway might be back.
I think that this team is really starting to come together. There are a lot of questions surrounding Williams (as there should be) among many other players. I refuse to draw concrete conclusions bout him or any of the team until at least a few regular season games are played. I'll highlight players this time of year and give my confidence level, maybe some predictions but I will not definitively grade anyone. Lastly, I finally have my logo! It'll replace that orange football icon I've had in the top left of the web page. TBD on if it will serve as the de-facto image on the emails/X posts.
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