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Maybe the Chicago Bears will see better days with Caleb Williams, but things looked bleak again on Sunday.
Chicago’s unsuccessful offense suffered a similar fate in a 21-16 loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. The NFC North team is now 1-2 and continues to look lost on offense, with a miserable offensive line and a rookie playmaker who is having initial growing pains.
Williams threw for 363 yards and his first two career touchdowns, but also lost the ball three times, and his yardage stats were inflated by a first-half Hail Mary that was one yard short of a touchdown and an offense in comeback mode in the second half against a weak defense.
His counterpart Anthony Richardson was even worse, completing 10 of 20 passes for 167 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions, but Jonathan Taylor was responsible for the victorious Colts with 110 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
There was a lot to say on social media about Williams’ performance and the Bears overall:
Both teams probably assumed from the start that this would be a game of bounce-back as Chicago’s struggling offense, which featured Williams throwing two interceptions and seven sacks in a loss to the Houston Texans, had a chance to compete against a Colts defense that ranked last in the league in rushing yards allowed.
Against this background, the start of the game was a dream for the defenders.
Richardson undercut his own deep ball to Alec Pierce with a horrific interception in the end zone to Tremaine Edmunds, and Williams responded by following his own deep ball to Rome Odunze with a similarly horrific interception to Jaylon Jones.
Taylor’s 29-yard touchdown run was the only score before halftime, as Chicago missed a field goal, came up a yard short when DJ Moore caught a Hail Mary and was stopped on four consecutive running plays inside the Colts’ 5-yard line, the last of which was an inexplicable speed option call that never stood a chance.
The offense didn’t get much better after halftime. Richardson’s interception of Jaylon Johnson set up a Bears field goal before Williams threw another interception to Jones on a later possession. Indianapolis also failed on a fourth down in Chicago territory, and the game got even worse.
However, the Colts finally broke through and took a two-point lead late in the third quarter when Chicago was offside on a punt, allowing the home team to retain possession. Indianapolis capitalized with a touchdown by Trey Sermon after several long possessions by Taylor.
Although Williams finally threw touchdown passes to Odunze and Cole Kmet in the fourth quarter, it was his mistake with the ball five yards downfield that cost the Bears a chance to win. He dropped back to pass on a play-action play, failed to throw the ball in time, and then lost the ball on a strip sack to Laiatu Latu.
Taylor then scored and the Colts sent Chicago home for a Week 4 game against the Los Angeles Rams.
