Caleb Williams and Bears’ offense face an ugly reality following brutal loss to the Ravens in Week 8
The Chicago Bears offense struggled to point points on the board in Week 8.
Going on the road riding a four-game win streak against a backup quarterback is always a good recipe for a trap game, and that’s exactly what happened to the Chicago Bears in Week 8 against the Baltimore Ravens.
Led by backup quarterback Tyler Huntley, after some questionable injury designations with starting quarterback Lamar Jackson going into the weekend, the Ravens put up 30 points against the Bears’ defense, but the performance of head coach Ben Johnson’s offense was the real story for Chicago.
For the second week in a row, quarterback Caleb Williams’ play was way worse than desired, and without a dominating run game and an opportunistic defense to bail the unit out, the Bears’ offense’s struggles were evident.
Stagnant offense finally proved to be a real problem without defensive takeaways to mask the issues
Chicago opened the game with two strong drives, but both drives stalled out deep in Baltimore territory, forcing the team to settle for two field goals, an issue Johnson specifically mentioned going into the game.
“I would like to just be more efficient as an offense. I would like to throw more completions. And we have to be better in the red zone,” Johnson said during the week. “That’s the other Achilles’ heel that we have right now. We’re making it down there, but we’re not scoring seven points. We’re just settling for field goals the last couple weeks. If we do those things on offense, I think you’ll see improvement.”
Even after a strong return to start the third offensive drive of the game, Chicago was forced to punt the ball away after Williams was called for his first of two intentional grounding penalties. Those three missed opportunities, plus a missed field goal after another bad offensive operation going into the half, put the Bears in a 10-6 hole that turned into a 16-6 deficit in the third quarter.
“We get into those moments and we’re either not scoring and converting in those moments, and we know we could’ve been up fourteen in those first two drives we had,” Williams told reporters. “That would have created a bunch of momentum for us, and I think that’s how it’s been a good amount of the year, especially these past two games.”
Williams, to his credit, was more efficient when it came to the completions compared to a week ago. A big factor in the slow start on Sunday was the penalties, with the final numbers being 11 penalties for 79 yards on Chicago’s end, many of which were drive-killing mental mistakes.
“I think you see flashes of explosive plays and some really good things happen, but the penalties for me is what stands out first and foremost,” Johnson said after the game. “We still have some of the pre-snap issues… That stuff adds up, and it hurts us. We get away with it occasionally, but it’s just not the way you win in this league.”
That’s especially true when the tougher matchups arrive on the schedule in a few weeks. Offensively, the Bears just aren’t playing winning football because of these issues and have benefited from a large number of defensive takeaways over the last few weeks. When those opportunities dried up in Week 8, the results spoke for themselves as to what kind of unit this offense is.
“I really put it on the leaders there in that locker room to get this ship going the right direction,” Johnson added. “Us coaches, we’ve been pounding that drum for a while, and we haven’t gotten the results we wanted. So, it’s on the leaders here, on this team, to get us right.”
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