The Bears saw their four-game winning streak come to an end on Sunday in Baltimore, a deserved result after oh-so-many opportunities missed.
It wasn’t that the Bears overlooked their opponent or underestimated Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley, filling in for the still-injured Lamar Jackson. They didn’t get jobbed by the refs.
They got outplayed.
Head coach Ben Johnson said the Ravens were more physical (they were) and wished his squad would’ve risen to meet the challenge (they didn’t).
The Bears now sit at 4-3, just outside the NFC playoff picture with 10 games to go. The most important thing here is not letting one loss turn into two or three.
Veteran defensive tackle and team captain Grady Jarrett is confident that won’t happen, pointing to fixable mistakes that led to a 30-16 result at M&T Bank Stadium.
He’s right. That hasn’t stopped the fan base from some minor freakouts after the game, which is what we’ll discuss in these Bears overreactions:
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Caleb Williams is costing the Bears wins
Overreaction?: Yes and no
Bears quarterback Caleb Willliams is not solely responsible for Chicago losing games. That wasn’t the case on Sunday. That wasn’t the case earlier in the year, either.
Williams has played some winning football at times, especially in Week 3 against Dallas. We’ve all seen what Williams can do. He just doesn’t operate at that level often enough. The inconsistency must be maddening for fans, to see the star potential followed by inaccuracies or poor reads or poor decision making.
Williams hurt his team with that fourth quarter interception deep in Bears territory that turned into an easy Ravens touchdown. The sequence essentially sealed defeat.
And we’re hearing from the quarterback that a mistake happened because he wasn’t on “the same page” with his receivers. Those problems should be infrequent, especially with players like DJ Moore, who he has worked with since turning pro.
That said, the tape shows several good throws made, including a few explosives. There are good things in every game that provide hope and optimism for quality play if consistency is found.
There were complaints about Williams after beating New Orleans, so much so that he was a featured element in last week’s Bears overreactions and fan outrage filled up my mailbag.
Consecutive lackluster performances will only turn the volume up. Expectations for him are relative to his status as a former No. 1 overall pick. Whether that’s fair or not, it’s what Williams must deal with. Johnson is quick to remind that progression is not linear, that there will be ups and downs in Williams’ first season working the new system. Patience should still be afforded, but he needs to help his team more than in the last few games. And that needs to start in Week 9.
This pass rush isn’t very good and isn’t going to get much better
Overreaction: Yes
The Bears had two sacks against Tyler Huntley. That’s not bad. Per NFL NextGen Stats, though, they only had three total quarterback pressures. That’s not good.
Let’s all just agree that sacks aren’t the only important metric when grading a pass rush.
Quarterback pressure percentage is, in my opinion.
Overall, they’re pressuring quarterbacks 28.7% of the times. That’s ranked No. 27 overall, in the bottom portion of the league. Coordinator Dennis Allen has been good creating pressure from linebackers and defensive backs, but the defensive line needs to do better with just four.
Montez Sweat is off to a strong start this season. Gervon Dexter Sr. is, too. Getting Grady Jarrett back from a knee injury will help, as will Austin Booker when activated. There’s talent up front, they just need more consistency getting after the quarterback.
I also think Dayo Odeyingbo can provide the biggest bump. His pass rush productivity, a Pro Football Focus metric that evaluates overall quarterback pressure but is weighted toward sacks, has Odeyingbo rated last among edge players with at least 125 pass rushes. He has a 7.9 QB pressure percentage this season. By comparison, he had 11.9% last season in Indianapolis. He has done better in the past. He needs to bring that level of play to the Bears in 2025.
[WATCH: Bears postgame interviews: Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams, Kevin Byard III and D’Andre Swift]
The Bears will be one of the league’s most penalized teams by year’s end
Overreaction?: Probably not
We’ve been talking about pre-snap penalties and Bears’ efforts to fix them since the summer, when folks were false starting a ton in training camp. That hasn’t changed, and we’re heading into Week 9.
The Bears had 11 penalties for 79 yards against the Ravens, including awful ones you just can’t have. Colston Loveland’s false start on third down in the red zone comes to mind. So do two Caleb Williams intentional grounding flags, including one that messed up a scoring opportunity as the first half ended. And there was an illegal formation that negated a Tory Taylor punt down at the Ravens’ 1-yard line.
Those things are inexcusable, and something Bears coaches and players say they’re working on and emphasizing during the practice week, yet the mistakes keep happening. The Bears have been flagged 10-plus times in three games this season, hindering their chances to win. They’ve gotten away with it a few times, but all those setbacks will haunt you against good teams. Despite the record, Baltimore’s a good team and those penalties were pivotal in Sunday’s outcome.
Johnson took these penalty issues seriously, and challenged the locker room to do better policing these detail issues.
“I really put it on the leaders there in the locker room to get this ship going in the right direction in that regard,” Johnson said. “Us coaches, we have been pounding that drum now for a while, and we haven’t gotten the results we wanted. So, it is on the leaders here on this team to get us right.”
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