Bears report card: How we graded Chicago in their Week 3 loss to Colts

The Chicago Bears (1-2) were defeated by the Indianapolis Colts (1-2), 21-16, on Sunday. It was a terrible loss for them, as it was a winnable game and their chance to start a run against weaker competition.

Maybe, the Bears aren’t as good as we thought, and they are the weaker competition. Once again, the defense kept them in it and the offense looked a tad bit better. Still, none of it was good enough to leave Indy with a win. Things finally looked better for rookie Caleb Williams, who nearly had a 400-yard game. Williams completed 63% of his passes for 363 yards and his first career touchdown passes, and he looked a lot more comfortable. But were still plenty of issues, including three costly turnovers, but there is a lot of time to get this corrected.

Despite Williams’ steps, the offense didn’t see the results that they were looking for and it cost them the games. You need to put points up -- and protect the ball -- at the end of the day and they didn’t do that enough. This isn’t the end of the line for the Bears, but this stuff needs to be cleaned up quickly if they hope to contend for the postseason.

Here's a quick breakdown and how we graded Chicago in this loss that should have never happened.

Offense: D+

The Bears offense was an F through the first two weeks of the season. It was a big reason that they almost lost in Week 1 and a big reason they did lose in Week 2. There was a lot of concern coming into this week's matchup against the Colts. A lot of that concern came because of how terrible the offensive line is. While they weren’t as bad in Week 3, they weren’t great either. They also weren’t playing a defensive front nearly as good as the one that the Tennessee Titans or Houston Texans have.

As mentioned before, Williams looked better and showed improvement but he still threw two interceptions. Only one of them, however, was unacceptable on his part as it was a bad throw near the sideline. He completed 33-of-52 passes for 363 yards and two touchdowns with three turnovers. Fellow rookie Rome Odunze finally got his season going, as well, in his breakout game. He had one touchdown (the first of his NFL career) and 112 yards receiving on six receptions. Between him, DJ Moore, and Cole Kmet, the offense looked a bit more like what we were hoping for coming in.

What keeps the grade down as a D+ is the putrid running game, which has been nonexistent through three games. D’Andre Swift was horrible, averaging just 1.5 yards per carry, and it isn’t like Khalil Herbert or Roschon Johnson were much better, although Johnson showed more potential. Chicago only had 63 total rushing yards as a team, which is putrid against a Colts team that had allowed an average of 237.0 rushing yards per game. The fact that the Bears couldn’t get the ground game going was detrimental to their chances to win. It'll be nice if the offense can continue taking steps, but there is a lot of work to do. A better game plan with a more balanced attack would be a great start.

Defense: B

The Bears defense has been incredible so far this year. They take the ball away, they keep the other team from scoring, and they have playmakers that make it an exciting brand of defensive football. Chicago's defense allowed the offense to have the ball more than the Colts offense. They were also put in a bad position a few times, especially after q bad Williams interception on the sideline.

Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and cornerback Jaylon Johnson each nabbed an interception in key moments of the game. Edmunds picked off quarterback Anthony Richardson in the end zone to prevent a score while Johnson picked off Richardson on the opening play of the second half, which led to Chicago's first points of the game. The one area where they struggled was against the run, where they allowed 150 rushing yards. That included a 100-yard outing by Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, who sealed the game for Indianapolis in the fourth quarter with his hard-nosed runs.

The Colts only went 3-of-12 on third down and 0-for-1 on fourth down so the defense did do the best that they could to keep this team in the game. Do they want to allow 21? No, but there is only so much they can do sometimes. Once the offense starts clicking, you should see some even better numbers for the defense who will have so much less pressure on them. For now, they have to keep working.

Special Teams: C

The Bears have had to use the punting unit more than they would have liked so far this season. Hopefully, Tory Taylor didn’t take Caleb Williams too seriously when he was texted that he wouldn’t have to punt a lot. Chicago may have a Cairo Santos problem. He is money from under 50 yards, but his inability to consistently hit the long ones is becoming a problem. Other kickers around the NFL are starting to look “too good,” but Santos, who just inked a four-year extension last year, has been an issue.

He missed another one on Sunday -- from what would've been a career-long 56 yards -- on the team's opening possession. It also could've factored into strategy down the line. The special teams won’t win you a ton of games as they did in Week 1, but they have been about average since that point.

Coaching: F

You can make a case that Sunday’s game in Indy was Matt Eberflus’s worst performance as head coach of the Bears, which is saying a lot. Recency bias and the circumstances of 2024 could play into that argument, but it is what it is. He and his staff were horrible. There was bad play calling, making Williams throw the ball 52 times in his third career game against a team that has been so bad against the run, and horrific timeout/time management decisions. A lot of that is on the offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, but Eberflus did the hiring there.

Using a timeout ahead of the two-point conversion attempt was an awful decision by Eberflus. It was a no-brainer to go for two there. It would have been a three-point game if they converted. If they didn’t (which they ended up not doing), there is no difference between being down by four or five in a football game. They could have used that wasted timeout later in the contest. Eberflus as a defensive coordinator has been great, but the rest of the team needs some help. After this week’s performance in a winnable game, he is going to have a lot more eyes on him going forward. We will see where this goes but the seat is getting warmer.

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears report card: How we graded Chicago in their Week 3 loss to Colts