With a 0-2 record, the Indianapolis Colts appeared to be the perfect opponent for the Chicago Bears and rookie quarterback Caleb Williams as they look to find some early-season rhythm.
But that wasn’t the case Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Williams and the Bears offense were once again plagued by poor execution, mental lapses and curious playmaking in their 16-21 loss to the Colts.
Williams had his first 300-yard, touchdown game of his career on Sunday. Williams completed 33 of 52 passes for 363 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
“He’s put up better numbers, but there’s some inconsistencies,” former Bears coach Dave Wannstedt said.
But the numbers are just glimpses of an offense that has no identity, can’t run the ball or protect a talented rookie quarterback — one that still has plenty of room for improvement.
Here are five takeaways from the Bears’ 21-16 loss to the Colts, and what comes next.
The Bears’ disastrous fourth-and-goal option
Much like the Bears’ offense over the past three weeks, explaining a confusing option call at the goal line wasn’t enough.
Trailing 7-0 and with 1:46 left in the second quarter, the Bears advanced the ball to the Colts 4-yard line and appeared poised to score to tie the game. Three consecutive runs by Khalil Herbert got the ball inside the Indianapolis 1-yard line, setting up a crucial fourth-and-goal decision.
The Bears sent the offense down the field and resumed a play they had been working on all week to fight the Colts’ goal line.
In a 13-man lineup (one guard, three tight ends), Williams signaled running back D’Andre Swift into a pistol formation and attempted to run a speed option to the short side of the field.
The option call now stands as a black mark on offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s resume — and predictably, social media didn’t take kindly to it.
“That’s what we practiced,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “We wanted to get a certain look. I don’t know if we got the look we wanted. … We wanted to get a certain look that they showed on the goal-line tape and you have to give them credit, they played well.”
Williams throws his first NFL TD
When Williams hit wide receiver and fellow rookie Rome Odunze for a one-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, everyone was asking the same question.
Which rookie will be allowed to keep the ball?
After Odunze scored the goal, he and Williams celebrated with a choreographed celebration that saw the new signal-caller run after the receiver to try to retrieve the souvenir.
But it was all just a show. There was no debate about who would get to keep the ball.
“We’ll split it in half,” Odunze joked after the Bears’ loss. “He’ll get the right, I’ll take the left like the Twix factory. But no, I think he’ll give me that one. He’ll have a lot of those in his career, a lot more than me, so he blessed me with that first one.”
The dangers of coaching persist
Many hailed the hiring of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron as at least a positive step forward for a talented defensive coordinator who is still trying to prove he has all the tools needed to be a winning head coach.
But three games into the 2024 season, all the glitz and hype of an offseason of change has faded, and all that’s left are mediocre challenges, wasted timeouts, a 1-2 record and concern that head coach Matt Eberflus and Waldron are hurting Williams’ early development.
With Waldron, one of the NFL’s best teachers and match-makers, along with three talented receivers and running back D’Andre Swift, the idea was that the Bears could lean on the running game and take the pressure off Williams to start the season. All of those tools should have allowed Williams to settle in early and work on perfecting his footwork and structured game so he could start to take off as the season went on.
But quite the opposite happened.
Heading into Sunday’s game, the Colts had the NFL’s worst run defense, allowing more than 200 yards per game and missing star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.
If there was ever a time for the Bears to get their running game going and make life easier for Williams behind an unstable offensive line, it would be Sunday.
Instead, the Bears asked Williams to throw the ball 52 times. They did so not because the Colts stopped the run, but because the Bears refused to force Indy to prove they could.
“I threw the ball 52 times? Holy crap,” Williams said after the loss. “I do whatever the team needs me to do. So if that’s [throwing] 50 times is 50 times. I can’t have two turnovers with those 50 attempts. And then if it ends up being 10 times, and I’m nine out of 10, and we have 300 yards rushing and four touchdowns, I’m fully aware, fully prepared to do whatever the team needs. And so if we get to 50 attempts and we throw the ball, if we get to 10 attempts, that’s all the team needs, all the team needs to get the win.
“We’re going to continue to fight, we’re going to continue to work on the running game. We’re going to continue to improve, for sure, on offense. We’re going to be stepping up soon.”
Execution is lacking
The first overall pick completed 33 of 52 passes for 363 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss.
But those numbers are a bit like lipstick on a pig. The Bears trailed 21-9 midway through the fourth quarter and were only able to really find a rhythm in the passing game when the Colts played back and tried to limit the explosive plays behind them.
Williams had several nice moments. The 47-yard scoring strike to Rome Odunze down the sideline was a world-class throw. He then completed the ball to DeAndre Carter, who he navigated under pressure, climbed into the pocket and threw with anticipation across the middle. But he also had two interceptions and was stripped on a sack late in the game.
The first interception was a “rhythm throw” that Williams was out of sync with. He tried to get back to Carter on a looping route late in the game, but cornerback Jaylon Jones jumped into the route for the interception. On the second interception, Williams saw that the defender’s back was turned and tried to throw a ball to Odunze to get. But the cornerback got his hand in there and deflected it off Odunze and into Jones’ hands.
On the strip sack, Williams said he sensed Colts rookie Laiatu Latu coming to the edge of the field but wanted to make small movements to get there because Odunze was about to get open behind the linebackers. But Latu caught up to him faster than expected and knocked the ball loose before Williams could get it to Odunze.
The rookie quarterback knows he has to eliminate turnovers, but he saw Sunday’s offensive production as a positive step as the Bears work to flesh out their identity.
As Wannstedt says, “It’s really the execution. It’s not, in my opinion, the pieces” that are lacking.
Bears get good grades in pass and run defense
The Bears intercepted Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson twice Sunday. Both times were on passes that were thrown directly at the Bears defense, but both times count the same.
However, the Bears’ pass defense allowed several explosive plays in the passing game, including a 44-yard pass to Alec Pierce that left cornerback Jaylon Johnson still angry after the play.
“I can’t get over it,” Johnson said after the loss. “For me, it’s one of those things where I can’t get over it but I keep playing. I know how to do both at this point in my career. I know what the standard is for me and this isn’t the standard.”
When told that Pierce had made some explosive plays early in the season, Johnson scoffed.
“It has nothing to do with me,” Johnson said.
Overall, the Bears defense held Richardson to 167 yards on 50 percent completions. But the explosive attacks they allowed led directly to touchdowns from Jonathan Taylor and Trey Sermon.
It was a good effort but, as Johnson noted, not the standard.
Next step
The Chicago Bears, now 1-2, will face the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at 12 p.m. at Soldier Field.
