The Bears scored their first offensive touchdown of the season in Houston on Sunday night, but it was still a long night for rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.
Williams was sacked seven times and hit 11 times in the 19-13 loss to the Texans. He was pressured plenty of other times as the Texans blitzed relentlessly, which contributed to interceptions on back-to-back drives in the second half and the Bears had four three-and-outs over the course of the evening.
After the game, Williams went the understated route when asked about the pummeling he took from the Texans defense.
“A little bruised up,” Williams said, via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports. “You know, I took a couple hits today. I’m gonna get into the ice tub and do all the things I need to do to make sure that my body’s ready for tomorrow, practice on the other days and obviously next game.”
Head coach Matt Eberflus said the protection issues are on “everybody” and cited improvement in the running game as another way to make life easier on the rookie quarterback. The changes will have to come quickly because other teams are going to follow the same blueprint that Houston did until the Bears show they can handle it better than they did on Sunday.
