The Morning After...the Bears' preseason loss vs. Bengals
· Yahoo Sports
The Chicago Bears were defeated by the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-9, during their second preseason game Saturday night at Paycor Stadium. It was a brutal showing for Chicago on offense, defense and special teams.
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The Bears were held without a touchdown and held scoreless in the second half, mustering just three Cairo Santos field goals on the night. Meanwhile, Chicago's defense allowed 282 passing yards and three touchdowns. The Bears were atrocious on third down, converting just twice on 14 attempts, while also racking up 11 penalties for 81 yards. Chicago also went 0-for-2 in the red zone.
There's plenty to discuss from this game, including the starters' first preseason action, concerns about the secondary and excitement about some young rookie. Our Bears Wire staff is sharing their thoughts on Chicago's preseason loss vs. Cincinnati.
Alyssa Barbieri
We caught a brief glimpse of Bears starters in this game, and it still felt like one of the ugliest preseason games we've seen, especially from a Ben Johnson-coached team. While the starting offense got off to an encouraging start, pre-snap issues and penalties stalled a promising drive. Chicago's starting defense, down to just two starters in the secondary, allowed the Bengals' backups to march down for a field goal. But those were the highlights for both units in this game.
With Tyson Bagent sidelined with a hamstring injury, we saw extended action from Case Keenum and Miller Moss, who were both unable to get the offense into a rhythm. The offense was held without a touchdown, and Cairo Santos was their entire scoring with three field goals, although he missed a 53-yarder that remains a concern in today's game. The secondary, which was supposed to be Chicago's strength, was the biggest weakness. They were picked on all night, including cornerback Dontae Manning, who allowed two touchdowns, although he did have some solid plays. Backup quarterbacks Josh Johnson and Sean Clifford feasted on the secondary, throwing for a combined 282 yards and three touchdowns.
The good news? Rookie defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg continues to show why he's going to serve an integral role on the Bears' defensive line this season as he continued to be disruptive along the interior. Rookie tight end Sam Roush also flashed his potential and could play a bigger role in the passing game. Undrafted rookie safety Skyler Thomas also got the game's only takeaway. But, outside of that, it was a disaster of a performance for Chicago. Still, it's only preseason, so it's important to not overreact, although there are valid concerns, namely surrounding the starting defense.
Brendan Sugrue
That was some ugly football that took place on Saturday night, even by preseason standards. If you decided to do anything else besides spend three hours watching the Bears and Bengals, count yourself lucky. This was a struggle to get through.
The story of the game was that the starters saw limited action, which was somewhat surprising coming off a joint practice. Quarterback Caleb Williams and the majority of the starting offense looked fine as they moved the ball downfield until a penalty thwarted all momentum. That came courtesy of Braxton Jones, who didn’t inspire confidence during his two series of work.
On the other side, seeing the defense struggle to contain the Bengals' second-string offense and quarterback Josh Johnson of all people was concerning. Those worries about the defense aren’t going away anytime soon.
The rest of the way, the Bears looked flat for much of the night, something we’re not accustomed to seeing under Ben Johnson. Offensively, they failed to find the end zone all day, didn’t even make it to the red zone in the second half, and converted just 2 of 14 third-down conversions. Meanwhile, the defense allowed chunk play after chunk play in a Swiss cheese secondary and didn’t sack the quarterback once. The cherry on top was the 11 penalties for 81 yards, a clear sign of their lack of discipline.
The biggest and perhaps only bright spot has to be the continued emergence of six-round rookie defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg, who was relentless on Saturday with his push and pursuit. He totaled three tackles but made a much stronger impact than the box score suggests. The Bears may have officially found a gem with that selection.
Overall, this performance doesn’t have me panicked going into Week 1. It’s still the preseason after all. It does, however, give me concern that the Bears don’t have the depth to survive injuries early on—particularly on defense. There are three weeks to get everyone prepped for Carolina, and the clock is ticking.
Mike Pendleton
For as fun as the practices were throughout the week, the Bears forgot to bring their talents into Saturday night. Not much was to be expected from the short time the starters played, but it’s somewhat concerning that a Ben Johnson offense looked so flat in this game.
No matter who was in at quarterback for Cincinnati, they were able to torch the Chicago secondary, another very alarming point in the loss. One good takeaway was seeing Dayo Odeyingbo make plays and get pressure on the quarterback, but there wasn’t very much good to take away from this.
Ariana Pensy
The preseason may not have starters, but any NFL team should not be as sloppy as the Bears were in any game - preseason or not. This was not anywhere close to Ben Johnson’s standards on either side of the ball. Chicago’s defense allowed the Bengals to score in every quarter of the game including two touchdowns in the second quarter alone. Offensively, the Bears never were able to get in the endzone despite two red zone trips. The penalties were alarming, especially after they only had two penalties in their first preseason game.
The missed 53-yard field goal from kicker Cairo Santos is also concerning. Granted, this was a game where everything that could go wrong went wrong for the Bears. But, especially after Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker was able to make a 69-yard field goal in their preseason game, the fact that Santos missed this kick only emphasizes that the Bears are limited with Santos at kicker because he does not have the leg for 60-yard kicks like other NFL kickers do. Maybe it is time for Chicago to move on from Santos?
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: The Morning After...the Bears' preseason loss vs. Bengals