Heading into the 2024 NFL season, the Chicago Bears were one of the hotter teams in the league following their offseason of flashy additions.
After their first two games this season, is it time to smash the panic button, or was this the start Bears fans should’ve expected from the jump?
Biggest Overreactions From Bears vs. Texans on Sunday Night Football
Is Matt Eberflus the Worst Head Coach in the NFL?
When it comes to coaches who can get the most from their defensive unit, Matt Eberflus might be a darn good coach. However, when it comes to the other intricacies of being an NFL head coach, like in-game decision-making, Eberflus couldn’t fall flatter.
This idea was strengthed after Chicago’s loss on Sunday night, as Eberflus made not one but two of the worst challenge calls an NFL head coach could make.
Maybe that’s a bit of an overreaction but read the headline again. That’s the point.
What isn’t an overreaction, though, is how crucial those two missed challenges were. Not only did they lose the Bears’ two timeouts that could’ve helped Chicago last night, but they were on two plays that just didn’t need to be challenged.
Eberflus challenged this catch pic.twitter.com/MIDgYmqilW
— PFT Commenter (@PFTCommenter) September 16, 2024
And this is a trend from Eberflus since becoming the Bears’ head coach in 2022. Of Eberflus’ seven challenges since that season, only two have been overturned from the original call.
This week, both challenges Eberflus called were undoubtedly the right call on the field, and though ‘Flus noted the team had a “good process” during both challenges, that comes across as nothing but coach speak.
Neither challenge was necessary, and with one losing the Bears a timeout in the second half of a winnable game, decision-making like this is why Eberflus could be coaching his last season with the Bears this year.
Bears Fans Might’ve Crowned Tyrique Stevenson Too Early
After winning NFC Defensive Player of the Week last week, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson got humbled a bit against the Houston Texans.
This whole season, Jaylon Johnson will force opposing quarterbacks to target Stevenson and Kyler Gordon every chance they can. Most quarterbacks come into games against the Bears knowing they can’t target Johnson as much as the other two corners, and that sentiment was on full display through the first half of Sunday Night Football between the Bears and Texans.
And while the second-year cornerback has a lot of talent to show, the first half of this game wasn’t his best performance.
In the first half, Nico Collins — who Stevenson was covering most of the first half — caught five passes for 86 yards and a touchdown. However, a positive was Stevenson’s ability to bounce back in the second half and allow fewer than 50 yards to Collins.
When dissecting this defense, there are still areas where they can improve. However, the ability to adjust after a porous first half is a noticeable plus from this unit. This defense is returning to a 2018-like unit, and that should make a lot of Bears fans extremely excited.
Sure, Stevenson had a tough first half, but that’s going to happen. Even the best cornerbacks have bad games. The key to it is making sure these performances don’t happen consistently. Allowing just 19 points, with three coming in the second half, shows how good this defense is. They just need to start games the way they finished this one, and the Bears could be looking at a defense that ranks near the top of the league.
Why Did Chicago Sign D’Andre Swift?
For his first three seasons with the Detroit Lions, D’Andre Swift was an above-average running back, giving Detroit a weapon on offense who could do more than just run between the tackles.
- 2020: 878 all-purpose yards
- 2021: 1,069 all-purpose yards
- 2022: 931 all-purpose yards
Then, in 2023, Swift joined an offense with one of the best offensive lines in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles. In that season, Swift rushed for over 1,000 yards for the first time in his career, finishing 2023 with 1,263 all-purpose yards and his first Pro Bowl nod.
This offseason, Ryan Poles opened the checkbook to write Swift a three-year, $24 million contract with a potential out in 2026 for Chicago.
Through two weeks of the 2024 season, Swift has been nothing short of disappointing. Now, that’s not solely on him, given how poor the offensive line has played, but he doesn’t walk away from this without any blame.
Swift’s lack of vision with the ball in his hands has been hard to watch, especially behind an offensive line that doesn’t make the clearest of holes. Totaling just 72 all-purpose yards through two games is simply not good enough from Swift.
The Bears Have the Worst Offensive Line in the NFL
While Caleb Williams hasn’t led a productive offense through his first two games, the crux of that problem is poor offensive line play.
Yes, this is a consistent issue for the Bears, but that doesn’t negate it from being true. When quarterbacks perform as poorly as Williams has this season, it’s important to look at the entire picture rather than just pointing fingers at the person throwing the football.
Williams should carry some of the blame, and he has, but this offensive line is scary bad.
How about another @HoustonTexans sack 😤
📺: #CHIvsHOU on NBC/Peacock
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/iQ09zqRzTp— NFL (@NFL) September 16, 2024
Not only has the Bears’ offensive line been bad, but they’re statistically the worst in the NFL by a significant margin. In Week 2 alone, not one single offensive lineman graded better than a 70 PFF score.
Not that PFF grades are the end-all-be-all, but they’re a reference to show how this unit played throughout the game. Spoiler: They all did really poorly.
- LT Braxton Jones: 69.3
- RG Nate Davis: 61.5
- LG Teven Jenkins: 59.8
- C Coleman Shelton: 56.7
- RT Darnell Wright: 39.0
And for the lineman who was supposed to be this unit’s leader, Wright, this was one of the worst single-game performances of his career in terms of PFF grade.
If the Bears want their rookie quarterback to remain healthy, the offensive line must improve. That’s the bottom line.