By the numbers: 5 Chicago Bears stats that tell the story of Week 2 loss to Texans

The Houston Texans have one of the better defensive lines in the NFL. Danielle Hunter, Will Anderson Jr. and Mario Edwards Jr. are all part of a fearsome front capable of disrupting most offenses. On Sunday Night Football, the Chicago Bears made them look like a cross between the Purple People Eaters and the New York Sack Exchange.

Bears fans spent this offseason doing the unthinkable — they actually allowed themselves to become excited about the mere possibility of having a functional offense. That's not too much to ask, is it? With a shiny new No. 1 pick in Caleb Williams, a dependable new All-Pro receiver in Keenan Allen and a clear upgrade at offensive coordinator in Shane Waldron, it seemed that the Bears were poised to finally join the 21st century and leave behind their old method of trying to win every game in the most excruciating, defensive way possible.

Apparently it is too much to ask, as there's something about this franchise that just outweighs any amount of offensive talent that general manager Ryan Poles could possibly procure. It's like buying a dresser from Ikea and trying to replicate the beautiful picture on the box. It might be made of the same parts, but when the Bears get their hands on it, the finished product has screws sticking out of it and crashes into a heap the first time you try to put some socks and shirts away.

The Bears lost to the Texans 19-13 on Sunday night, and it was every bit as torturous as so many other Bears games we've watched over the years. The defense put forth a valiant effort in holding CJ Stroud and the explosive Houston offense in check. Special teams did their job, too, but the offense, despite being handed chance after chance to seize control of the game, fell short time and again.

You can't always boil an NFL game down to a handful of stats, but we've got some numbers that provide a pretty neat summary of exactly what went down in Houston last night. The Bears have some strengths and they have some weaknesses, and they were all on full display for a national audience.

Week 2 Bears stats you need to know

Caleb Williams was pressured on 23 of his 48 dropbacks

To paraphrase The Playa Haters' Ball episode from Chappelle's Show, what can we say about the Bears offensive line that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan? It looks bombed out and depleted.

It wouldn't be accurate to say that Caleb Williams had a good game, even though he did show some flashes of being the guy that the entire city of Chicago has pinned its hopes to. The first drive of the game especially, the rookie QB looked crisp and decisive in finding his receivers, but it was mostly downhill after that.

Caleb missed a bunch of throws, but his final stat line of 23-of-37 for 174 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions was hardly his fault alone. He took a beating all night because his line couldn't protect him. Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright got beaten repeatedly on the edge, giving up a combined 17 pressures to Hunter and Anderson alone. Nate Davis was just as likely to fall on his face as get a clean block on someone, and the next time someone on the interior line picks up a blitz or a stunt will be the first time.

This was the most the Texans had ever blitzed under DeMeco Ryans, and it worked. Houston finished the night with seven sacks and 11 hits on Caleb while giving the rest of the NFL the blueprint on how to beat the Bears going forward.

Tory Taylor averaged 47.3 yards on six punts

Caleb famously told fellow rookie Tory Taylor after he was drafted, "Hey, you're not going to punt too much here." That kind of bravado can get a fanbase fired up, but the cold hard truth is that the Bears have punted 12 times in just two weeks. Only the anemic Broncos have punted more. Even more sobering is the reality that Taylor has more than twice the amount of punt yards (554) that Caleb has passing the ball (267).

If there's a silver lining, it's that Taylor has been fantastic. He's averaging more than 46 yards per kick so far, but he's done more than just boot it. His 54-yarder in the second quarter was as close to punting nirvana as it gets, as it was perfectly angled out of bounds so as to not allow a return.

Taylor also launched a 53-yarder with no return to the Houston 10 in the third quarter, a 57-yarder from his own 19 to flip the field one possession later, and a 54-yard boomer from his own end zone in the fourth quarter to get the Bears out of trouble once again.

Relations between the defense and the offense may get icy if the lack of offensive production persists, but a good punter is a defense's best friend. Taylor is doing everything he can to help ease the D's burden.

Ryan Poles took heat for drafting a punter in the fourth round, but Taylor has proven himself to be worth the price.

Nico Collins was the star of the game with eight catches for 135 yards and a touchdown

There's not a whole lot more the Bears could have done on defense in this game. Joe Mixon ran for 150 yards last week, but he was bottled up by the Bears to the tune of nine carries for only 25 yards. Stefon Diggs was quiet, with just four catches for 37. Tank Dell's only catch of the game came on a pop pass that Kyler Gordon blew up for a loss of three.

Nico Collins had himself a day, though, and he mostly did it against Tyrique Stevenson. The second-year corner was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his game-winning pick-six against the Titans last week, but he made a major mistake in this one — he made Collins mad. The young Texans receiver was called for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for retaliating after Stevenson poked him in the face after the whistle, but he made up for it and then some by routinely getting open for CJ Stroud, including multiple times on broken third down plays after Stroud was able to buy some time.

Collins emphatically proved that it's he and not Diggs that is the Texans' top receiver, and though the Bears did a great job defending pretty much everyone else, it's worrisome that for a team that has to play Justin Jefferson and Amon-Ra St. Brown twice each this year, they were unable to contain another team's No. 1 wideout.

The teams combined for 21 accepted penalties for 175 yards

This was an ugly game for more than just the general lack of offense. It was a busy day for the refs, who threw flags for just about every penalty imaginable. The Bears had four false starts, including two in three plays during their only touchdown drive. There was pass interference, illegal hands to the face, and roughing the passer all called on the Texans. The Bears were called for holding twice and illegal formation, intentional grounding and delay of game once each.

That delay of game was the most inexcusable kind of penalty, as it came out of a timeout. That reflects poorly on the coaching staff, as do two terrible challenges by head coach Matt Eberflus that cost the Bears timeouts.

Through two weeks, the Bears are on pace for 119 penalties, which would have been the second most in the league last year. The offense is having a tough enough time as it is, and the last thing it needs is to be consistently put in 3rd and long because of a lack of discipline.

Not many teams around the NFL look like a well-oiled machine at this point in the season, but few look as rusty or are belching as much smoke, as the Bears. Penalties, missed assignments, and a general lack of preparedness is not a good look for a franchise that is looking not only to get back to the playoffs but to stop playing ugly after decades of doing nothing but.

Through two weeks, the Bears have one more yard of offense than the Carolina Panthers

Talk about a punch in the gut. This is the kind of stat that would induce Todd O'Connor, Chris Farley's SNL Super Fans character, into his 17th heart attack.

For any problems the Bears might have had recently, they've at least been able to say for the past two years, "At least we're not the Panthers." Ryan Poles pulled off the greatest heist since Ocean's 11 when he traded the number one pick in the 2023 draft to Carolina so that David Tepper's franchise could draft Bryce Young, and since that moment the Panthers have been the worst team in the league. Their offense has been putrid, but through two games, the Bears haven't been any better. Even worse, everyone else in the league is averaging at least 50 yards more per game than these two teams.

The Bears revamped their entire offense this offseason. They used one of the picks they got from Carolina on Caleb Williams, and they signed D'Andre Swift with the money they saved by having a quarterback on a rookie contract. We went over Caleb's struggles already, but Swift hasn't been any better. He received 18 touches last night, but only managed 42 total yards. He put up just 30 yards on 10 touches last week.

The Panthers have 13 points in two weeks and once again look like they're on their way to a bottom-of-the-NFL finish. The Bears have a far superior defense, but it's deeply troubling that their offense is on the same level. Bryce Young has done nothing to show that he's not a bust, yet the Panthers actually have more passing yards than the Bears. Is there a way to fix the offense's problems without improved offensive line play? Shane Waldron and all the people who picked the Bears to make the playoffs better hope so.