It was a little bit of a plot twist, but the Chicago Bears ended up playing the starters in their second preseason game of the year against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Luther Burden III was out with his injury, and D'Andre Swift and Joe Thuney were both healthy scratches for the game. That left the rest of the starters, including Bears starting quarterback Caleb Williams, to play in the contest.
The starters on offense only played for one series, ending in a Cairo Sants field goal. It was an eight-play, 33-yard drive that lasted 3:19. Williams finished the drive 2-of-5 for 28 yards passing, as the Bears got blown out by the Bengals 27-9. Overall, though, how did the Bears feel the game went for them?
Caleb Williams talks one drive in Bears' preseason loss to the Bengals
After the game, Williams spoke with the media about the mistakes that were made throughout the game and on that opening drive. The Bears quarterback was honest about how he felt the drive went.
“I felt like I was pretty on today," Williams said. "We had one or two batted balls, and then I had the wrong incompletion on purpose just because the linebacker got up under it. It's a thing you can control. There are so many details within each play, and each play needs 100% of your focus. If you go 99%, or one of your teammates goes 99% while everybody else gives 100%, it comes down to everybody doing their 1/11th on the field. It's just getting back into the flow of playing a game, so we'll go look at the tape and figure it out."
The Bears were called on one penalty in that drive with Williams. It was a holding penalty on starting left tackle Braxton Jones that put them back 10 yards.
Williams played decently well on the drive with completions to Rome Odunze and Colston Loveland. Bears fans believed that on a second-and-20 from the Bengals 27-yard line, Williams missed Loveland on a throw that could have been a big play for a touchdown.
As a team, the Bears did finish with 11 penalties for 81 yards in the loss. That leaves a lot to be desired, but overall it wasn't a bad performance.
Most Bears fans were caught off guard by who played, especially after all that happened in training camp with the injuries. It matches what the team did last year, when they played a lot of the starters in the second game.
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Williams should feel like they did well on the drive, but they still need to clean up a few things. Hopefully, it will be the last time the Bears fans see the starters on the field for the preseason before the Week 1 Carolina Panthers showdown.
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