Bears Report Card for Preseason Game No. 3 Against Bengals

Grading the Bears: Lack of consistency on offense meant more play reps and ultimately only marginal success for a team one game away from preparing for the regular season.

Rome Odunze on Big Catch and Big Mistake.mp4 /

It's easy to look at a 27-3 win over Cincinnati in preseason as successful.

It beats losing.

Was it actually a success for the Bears in terms of preparing them for the regular season, though?

Sure, Caleb Williams got more snaps and plays in than you might imagine when he played the first half. The reason he was still playing at halftime, however, seemed to have more to do with the offense's failures earlier in the game.

"No, that was the range that we had," coach Matt Eberflus countered. "We don't go into it and say, 'hey, we're going to play a quarter or quarter and a half.' That doesn't work. How you do it is you say, 'hey, we're going to have a range of series and a range of plays' and then that's how you see the ebb and flow of the game and guys are able to play until we say, 'OK, that's good,' as a group. I ultimately make the decision, but we like to do it that way.' "

WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM BEARS VICTORY OVER BENGALS

OK, so they had a range of plays, but if they had success earlier you can bet Eberflus would have been removing Williams.

They have to come away from a 24-point win feeling a bit dissatisfied because, let's face it, when your first team is playing against backups there should be much more consistency. They lacked this entirely on offene and seemed to move the ball only sporadically via a big broken play here by Williams or there by Rome Odunze, and also because it was second- and third-team defenders.

The Bears had their backup receivers on the field or at least their third and fourth receivers, but they also had the first-team offensive line blocking and a starting quality running back on the field.

Here's how the Bears graded out in preseason game No. 3.

Passing Game: B-

Tyson Bagent and Brett Rypien displayed some of the necessary targeting after reading the defense, while Williams looked for potential big strikes, drifted around or ran around wildly in the pocket hoping to catch a receiver breaking into the open in the secondary. It was labeled "hero ball" when he was at USC but in this level it's more like "panic ball." He did make the one big deep completion to Rome Odunze for 45 yards on a difficult pass to throw as he is a right-hander moving to his left. And he had Tyler Scott coming wide open when he interference flag gave the Bears a 43-yard gain after a grab in the secondary. The Bears had five completions more than 22 yards long, but only one between 12 and 22 yards. It's difficult to move chains without those medium-range completions.  A 5-for-12 effort for 30 yards doesn't sound impressive at all, but that's what Williams was without the 45-yard completion to Odunze. Williams' passer rating of 64.6 compared to 151.6 for Tyson Bagent and 116.7 for Brett Rypien says it all. 

Running Game: C+

Khalil Herbert had one or two early runs with ill-advised cuts when he could have had more sticking with the flow of the blocking scheme, but as the game continued he seemed to get a better feel for where the holes were. This is to be expected as Herbert is better with more carries like any back is. Run blocking generally looked better in this game on the interior than when they tried to go outside zone and take it to the perimeter. It's difficult to say much positive about the offensive line when they couldn't average 4.0 yards per rush against backups.

Let's give Velus Jones Jr. some credit here for making himself look like a running back instead of a wide receiver play-acting as a running back. He lowered his head and moved the pile up the gut on a 7-yard run. That was as good of an inside run at the point of attack as any of the Bears regular running backs have displayed this preseason. Overall, though, he did little to up his rushing numbers with six runs for 13 yards. Week 2 rushing hero Ian Wheeler also did little, with 4 yards on two tries.

Pass Defense: A-

Ultimately it's difficult to affix blame when there isn't much wrong. A 50.7 passer rating against Logan Woodside and Rocky Lombardi is about what you'd expect for numbers from a third- and fourth-string QB against mediocre defenses let alone one with high aspirations like the Bears have. Kyler Gordon made a huge difference in their secondary, whether covering or blitzing out of the slot to force an interception. It was a team thing, as when Gordon left Josh Blackwell took his spot and had a blindside sack. The secondary appears primed for the season but they need to get Jaquan Brisker back healthy. The pass rush relied on blitzing because they weren't getting home like they need to do with the front four.

Run Defense: B

This was about as consistent as any team has been at running against the Bears defense in preseason, with 82 yards against and a 3.3-yard average. It made far less impact than the play-action game the Bengals used effectively against the Bears secondary. Even then, the Bengals had one completion longer than 15 yards.

Special Teams: A-

Both field goals and the operation of them came off without a hitch in the rain or on a wet field, including a 51-yarder. Bears kick and punt coverage units were exquisite, keeping six returns at the 20-yard line or worse. About the only thing the Bears did wrong special teams-wise all game was the ball Elijah Hicks could have downed at the 2 but had his foot on the goal line when he handled the ball.

Coaching: B

Even in a preseason game and with rookie Caleb Williams in his second start, it's not easy to understand how Shane Waldron's offense could go three straight three-and-outs. By accident you'd think they could manage one first down. The blitz look from the slot was well-executed and devised both with the regular season and this game in mind.

Overall: B

It didn't seem possible for them to improve as much as they actually did in some phases of the game over the last two preseason contests. Since playing their second preseason game, the infusion of some healthier defensive players and coaches has this mini-rebuild moving in the proper direction while still looking at as much talent as possible.

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