I was kind of surprised to see the Bears running the ball up the middle in the first series. I would’ve thought they would’ve tried to attack the edges in the run. The Steelers, particularly Nick Herbig, are a little light on the edges.
It looked to me like Caleb Williams was reasonably accurate and on time on occasion today. But he’s still too inconsistent and still missed too many open throws.
We knew this was going to be a physical game, and it looked to me like the Bears just plain got out-physicaled at the line of scrimmage. Advantage AFC North.
A deep ball game would have been very handy today. You’d like to see Williams develop to the point where the Bears trust him more to make those long throws.
On the other hand, credit Williams for getting the ball out quickly today. Even on the throws he missed, they came out reasonably fast.
As has been true in recent weeks, most of Williams’s success was with throws over the middle.
Defense
I really expected that Pittsburgh would come out running against a bunch of subs at linebackers. And that’s exactly what they did. And they had great success doing it. If you count the wide receiver screens, they made a lot of yardage.
One thing that stuck out was the blocking by the Steelers wide receivers. It was excellent.
Given that game plan, I expected that Pittsburgh would come out with a lot of two- and three-tight-end sets to run out of. They do it as much as any team in the league. However, to my eye, they didn’t really do that. A lot of it was one-tight-end sets. My guess is that’s because they decided to attack the edges in the run.
I don’t think there was much of a pass rush in the first half, but Mason Rudolph did a good job of getting the ball out of his hands quickly today. Kudos to him for playing within himself and letting the team’s other highly regarded players make plays.
Montez Sweat had a nice second half with a couple of sacks, a forced fumble, and a recovered fumble (his own). He’s earning his money.
Miscellaneous
I like JJ Watt on color. For one thing, the guy really knows the rules. That’s helpful.
I don’t mean to imply that I know anything about broadcasting. But I know bad work when I see it. And some of the camera work was pretty poor in this game.
Nice interception by Nashon Wright. That was a big play early in the game on a not-so-great throw by Rudolph.
On the other hand, the fumble by Williams in the end zone that allowed the Steelers to score a touchdown wasn’t great. You live by the sword, and you die by the sword. The guy is trying to make a play, and it backfires. It’s bound to happen.
I was not thrilled with the call on the D’Andre Swift “fumble” in the second quarter. There’s no way the officials saw what happened on that play, and progress by Swift was stopped anyway. I think they may have decided that turnovers are reviewed and therefore called the turnover absent anybody actually seeing the play. Of course, if they couldn’t see what happened among the bodies, there’s no way that replay could show it.
It wasn’t the debacle that some of the games earlier in the season were. But I still think the Bears need to be cleaner in terms of penalties. The taunting penalty by DJ Moore in the third quarter was pretty stupid.
I liked “Everybody Loves Raymond”, too. But did it really call for a reunion show? And about 15 commercials about it? On the other hand, CBS’s target audience appears to be people 75 and older, so maybe so.
It’s never an excuse, but Bears injuries really piled up today. Hopefully, the Bears will get some help in that area as players return this week from injury before the Eagles game.
I think Ben Johnson will look back at this game and be particularly disappointed in the fact that the Bears got out-physicaled too often on both sides of the ball. I think he’s trying to establish an identity in Chicago, and that’s at the heart of it. They’ve got a way to go. It will be interesting to see how they look against a very physical Eagles team in a big TV slot on Black Friday.
Sometimes I measure Williams’ progress by how often I yell the words, “Throw it! Throw it!” at the TV as he holds the ball. I didn’t do that once today. Be happy, Bears fans. There’s progress being made every week here.
