Former Bears Star Shocked by ‘Ugly’ Showing in Primetime

After starting the 2024 season with an incredible comeback win over the Tennessee Titans in Week 1, the Chicago Bears came back to Earth on Sunday Night Football, losing 19-13 to the Houston Texans.

While the Bears’ defense did a solid job against C.J. Stroud of the Texans’ offense, Chicago’s offense again floundered for the second straight week. The Bears’ rushing attack struggled to find its footing (71 yards and a touchdown) and the offensive line failed to protect rookie QB Caleb Williams (sacked seven times).

It was a horrible performance from the Bears’ offense, which hasn’t lived up to the preseason expectations set for them. Former Bears star running back Matt Forte voiced his thoughts on what he saw from the offense on social media.

“Sheesh! It’s getting ugly…but until we fix how we play in the trenches offensively this is how it's gonna be,” Forte said. “No explosive runs, sacks, limited playbook etc.”

The Bears’ offensive line did a horrible job of protecting Williams on Sunday night as he was sacked several times and allowed 11 quarterback hits. Also, the Texans defense blitzed the rookie quarterback on 41.7 percent of his dropbacks, per NFL Next Gen Stats.

As for the running game, the offensive line couldn’t open up many rushing lanes for D’Andre Swift. The veteran running back had 18 yards on 14 carries (1.3 yards per carry). The most success Swift had was running off the wide right of the offensive line, picking up 11 yards on four carries.

That said, the Bears’ offense will try to get back on track against the Colts' defense in Week 3, which was destroyed on Sunday by Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (151 yards on 32 carries). It isn’t time to sound the alarms yet in the Windy City, but Chicago’s offense needs to get its act together asap.

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