Bear Digest

Bears Plan to Put Starters Back Out on Field Against Bengals

After a rain-soaked joint practice with Cincinnati, Bears coach Matt Eberflus announced he would use his starters in Saturday's game at Soldier Field.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams will get another start Saturday when the Bears host Cincinnati even though the Bengals have said their starters will rest.
Caleb Williams will get another start Saturday when the Bears host Cincinnati even though the Bengals have said their starters will rest. / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
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Once they dry out, the Bears will use their starters Saturday in their third preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus will not reciprocate in this case. Bengals coach Zac Taylor had said he would not use his starters but Eberflus will use his in the game.

"I'm just gonna say this, we feel really good about our plan and the process that we've been through so far in training camp," Eberflus said. "You will see the starters in that game."

The idea that the Bears would get good first-team reps against Cincinnati in Thursday's joint practice at Halas Hall had made it seem possible they would rest the starters, too. Eberflus felt they had a good practice, but it rained throughout and sometimes rained hard, all after the Bears had postponed the last scheduled chance for fans to watch workouts.

"Again, I talked about competitive reps the other day and I feel like we've gotten a lot of good, competitive reps," Eberflus said. "Ones on ones, a lot of good situations. This day was another chance for us to get competitive reps against another opponent, another skill set, which was outstanding.

"And then this week coming up on Saturday we'll get another chance to get some reps there, too, so we feel really good about that. With that, I'll open it to questions."

Seeing quarterback Caleb Williams working against another team in a game situation is the optimal experience.

Williams' very first pass of the practice Thursday against Cincinnati was intercepted by linebacker Germaine Pratt on a short throw over the middle in red zone 7-on-7. However, he rebounded with a series of strong throws to receivers who could keep their feet and handle the ball in the constant rain. All three starting wide receivers slipped and hit the turf at one point for the Bears, and it was worse for the Bengals, who had reserve defensive back Chris Evans and reserve offensive lineman D'Ante Smith taken from the field on carts after apparent leg injuries.

"It was really good because Cincinnati offers a different structure, a different set of circumstances or looks, so to speak, that you get from different teams across the league," Eberflus said, pointing out the three-man front the Bengals use differs from what the Bears offense sees from its own defense and from Buffalo last week.

Eberflus said they had a plan in place to move to a dry Walter Payton Center if lightning became a problem but there was none.

Williams and Bengals QB Joe Burrow threw in the rain.

"I thought that this was outstanding today, too," Eberflus said. "First 7-on-7 today he throws an interception, then he comes back. It was great to be out there in the weather today, really for everybody, just because of the ball. You have to handle the ball differently in the wet, and it was wet out there. There was pretty good rain at times."

The defense seemed to enjoy it by taking it away three times, including interceptions of Burrow by safety Kevin Byard and cornerback Greg Stroman Jr. Burrow did throw a nice TD pass against them to Trenton Irwin during full-squad scrimmage. Burrow did throw a nice touchdown pass to Trenton Irwin against the first-team defense, minus Jaquan Brisker, Kyler Gordon and Tyrique Stevenson in the secondary.

"Yeah, it was fun," Byard said. "Obviously a lot of rain out there today, kind of favors the defense a little bit, but it was exciting.

"I played against Joe Burrow a lot over the years. I know how good of a quarterback he is. Anytime you get a chance to go up against him and kind of test out some of the things we’re doing coverage-wise that kind of confuse him a little bit, it’s always fun. But I felt like the defense brought a lot of energy. Got some takeaways. Got three turnovers, so that’s always the goal of the day to get three turnovers."

The takeaways have become a common thing for the defense no matter who they face.

"Their guys over there were raving about our defense," tight end Cole Kmet said. "I think we do have a really good defense and you look at the guys that we got, I think it can be a really special crew this year. From the guys we got in the back end and obviously when we added Montez in the middle of last year what that did for our run game and obviously what he can do sack-wise to get to the quarterback.

"So, those guys are tough to go against every day and they play really hard, and I feel like we’re going against the best defense in the league every day we come out to practice. That only benefits us."

Like clockwork, the rain finally stopped when practice ended.

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Gene Chamberlain

GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.