Good, bad and ugly from the Bears' preseason win vs. Bills
The Bears dominated from start to finish with the starters and backups coasting through the Bills with ease. Chicago scored 28 points in the first half, including 21 during the second quarter. With a win like this, it's hard to find a lot of bad, but there sure was a lot of good.
With that in mind, here's a look at the good (a lot), bad and ugly from the Bears' dominant win over the Bills.
The Good
Caleb Williams: The former No. 1 overall pick has been the biggest question mark for the Bears this offseason. How much of his rookie year was his fault? Does he hold the ball too long? Will Ben Johnson really help save his career and get more production out of him? While two drives of a preseason game won't give definite answers to any lingering questions, it's hard not to feel optimistic after Williams' performance vs. Buffalo. Williams finished 6/10 for 106 yards and a touchdown. Not to mention one of his incompletions was a good ball that was dropped by Rome Odunze. Williams got the ball out fast, worked quickly through his progressions, and controlled the tempo of the Bears offense. This was his first real-game experience with Johnson's offense, and from the eyes of the viewer, he passed the eye test.
Ben Johnson: Williams wasn't the only piece of the Bears' offense that flourished — in fact, it all flourished. Tyson Bagent and Austin Reed stepped in and played well, the receivers ran routes well and found holes in the defense, and the run game didn't suffer at all. The Bears accumulated 528 yards on Sunday. But, maybe the X's and O's shouldn't be the biggest takeaway from Johnson's second preseason game with the navy and orange — his demeanor should be. With his offense tallying points and yardage like no tomorrow and his defense holding a shutout the entire game, Johnson didn't look satisfied. He doesn't want to just shutout and blowout teams in the preseason, he wants the Bears to continue to dominate into the regular season.
Pass protection: The Bears allowed one sack. Yes, that's right, one. Williams wasn't sacked at all and only had to improvise and scramble around once during his two drives — four of the Bears' five starting offensive lineman played those two drives. Again, while it's hard to imagine that this is the form the offensive line will look during the regular season when facing defensive lines stacked with Pro Bowlers, it's very promising to not have to watch Williams run for his life in the backfield.
The Bad
Ball control: Not much went wrong for the Bears on Sunday. The only negatives were the two fumbles from running back Brittain Brown and quarterback Austin Reed. But, both fumbles were recovered. It was a pretty flawless game from Chicago and complaining about the fumbles is definitely nitpicky. But we were grasping for straws in this section.
The Ugly
Nothing: When you blow out a team 38-0 while totaling 528 yards of total offense and allowing just 180 total yards to the opposing team, it's difficult to find anything bad yet along ugly.
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