Offense
- Terrible start to the game. A holding penalty on the first play and a fumble on the third. Carolina ball on the Bears 40. Carolina eventually scored a touchdown.
- D’Andre Swift just looked great today. Quick, fast, breaking tackles right and left. His extension might be money well spent. THe Bears ran for over 7 yards per rush for over 250 yards total..
- You really wonder how the Bears can get away with leaning on a tendency like running to the right that often. 2/3 of the time last year and they certainly look like they’re continuing that again this year.
- Caleb Williams still needs to work on that ball placement. He still struggled on occasion to hit receivers in stride, limiting the RAC. In many respects it looked like last year.
- On the other hand, and this is more important, Williams was getting the ball out on time from the pocket more often than not.
- Nice to see Rome Odunze catch an under thrown 50:50 ball. He’ll need to make a number of those this year if the Bears are going to live up to their potential. Not to pick on Williams for a complete pass but he threw the ball unnecessarily off of his back foot and didn’t get much behind the throw. The pass should really have been a touchdown.
- What an unbelievable catch by Cole Kmet in the second quarter for a touchdown. I thought it was a dumb throw coming out of Williams’ hand because I saw good coverage off the line with a safety coming over. But it was a perfect throw and a wonderful catch. I can only conclude that Williams saw a matchup he liked and he went for it.
- Once Carolina started to blitz in the second quarter they did a pretty good job of stopping the Bears with it. They did do some things to adjust and kudos to Drew Brees, the color man, for pointing them out. And the Panthers couldn’t stop them consistently (obviously). But some of those were Williams missing the free rusher off of the edge and he will have to keep an eye out for that. Vikings defense up next week…
Defense
- The Bears defense continued the terrible start. A broken coverage that looked like a bad decision by Jaylon Johnson put the Panthers near the goal line.
- There was some bad tackling out there. The Bears didn’t look ready to play.
- Dillon Thieneman did a solid job today. I was surprised that the Panthers didn’t do more to attack Cam Lewis at the other safety position, who should have stood out as a weakness in pass coverage. They finally started to do it a bit late in the third quarter.
- Nice throw from Bryce Young for a deep touchdown completion against Tyrique Stevenson in the second quarter. The Bears corners looked like they started the game a bit too aggressive, biting on what they thought was going to be a short throw to let a receiver get behind them. Perhaps they were in zone coverage and were depending upon help over the top that didn’t make it over. But it didn’t look like it.
- Usually you can depend upon teams going after Stevenson but the Panthers sure didn’t look like they were afraid to attack Johnson this game. And they had plenty of success.
- What really stuck out to me today was the Bears inability to pressure Young. The hope was that they’d get more penetration up the middle but it didn’t look to me like we saw much of it. You wonder if Dennis Allen isn’t going to rely more on the blitz this year again than he would like. He certainly was stubborn about not relying it todayuntil late in the game. But I can’t imagine that will last unless things change.
- Keep an eye on Caolina’s Jalen Coker. He looks like he’s got some game.
Miscellaneous
- Ideal kickoff for Carolina to start the game. The ball landed in the landing zone and then rolled out of the back of the end zone. The Bears started at the 20. It’s something you don’t often see because most of the time the returners catch those balls.
- Compare that to the Bears first kickoff which was short of the landing zone. There was anothe rone in the second half. That needs to be cleaned up.
- It was a loud crowd in Carolina. I found it to be hard to hear Adam Amin and Drew Brees on occasion. Kudos to the fans of both teams there.
- Lots of slipping and sliding going on out there. It might have just been fatigue in the heat but it looked like there might have been something odd about the turf.
- Fourth and a yard at the Bears 20. The Bears go for it and don’t make it. You can’t get mad. You know that’s who Ben Johnson is. From his point of view, if you can’t get a fourth and one you don’t belong on the field.
- I would have bet money that the Bears would be the team to wear down in the heat this game. But it sure looked to me like the Panthers were the team that suffered in the fourth quarter. the bears won the time of possession battle decisively.
- We heard over and over again about how a physical camp would prepare the Bears to play in 2026. There was no evidence of it in some major ways today. The Panthers enjoyed wonderful starting field position and the Bears shot themselves in the foot with five major penalties and a turnover in the first quarter. They had 12 total penalties over the course of the day. Repeat after me. “It’s only week 1. Its only week 1”.
- Tweet of the day during the fourth quarter:
