HOUSTON — Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams took the field with a chance to clean up the offensive mess that was the first 58 minutes and 23 seconds against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on “Sunday Night Football.”

It was the kind of opportunity that quarterback Justin Fields, his predecessor, ultimately failed to capitalize on.

Williams had the ball on the Bears’ 20-yard line with 1:37 left on the clock and one timeout remaining.

He wins the game with a touchdown and an extra point.

Instead, the Bears delivered the following in a 19-13 loss to the Texans:

• First-and-10 from the Bears’ 20-yard line: A 27-yard catch-and-run from Williams to rookie receiver Rome Odunze.
• First-and-10 from the Bears’ 47-yard line: a dropped pass by tight end Gerald Everett.
• Second-and-10: A sack by Texans defensive end Danielle Hunter — which quickly left right tackle Darnell Wright in the dust — for a loss of 8 yards.
• Third-and-18: A 1-yard scramble by Williams on a play where the Bears were penalized for an illegal formation.
• Fourth-and-17: A missed long-range shot from Williams to Odunze, where they were clearly not on the same page.

6 different Texans recorded at least one sack tonight 🤘 photo.twitter.com/lx9EZlrN9A

— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) September 16, 2024

Sunday night wasn’t Williams’ “Welcome to the NFL” moment.

It was his “Welcome to the Chicago Bears” reality, where calling offensive plays is questioned, pass blocking is always suspect, eggs are routinely laid on strange soil and the pressure to be the one to fix everything by becoming everything remains immense.

Williams was 23-for-37 passing for 174 yards and two interceptions. He was sacked seven times. Through two games, he has 267 passing yards. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for 260 and a touchdown on Sunday night. The Bears have scored just one offensive touchdown through two games: running back Khalil Herbert’s 2-yard run in the second quarter.

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After the game, Williams sat quietly in the locker room for a few minutes while his teammates showered, changed and walked to the team buses.

“I think just taking in the moment, understanding that I’m trying to figure out what I need to get better at,” Williams said. “I haven’t watched the film. I haven’t done all that stuff. I’m just trying to figure out what areas I fell short in, what areas we fell short in order to get the result that we had, which was not winning. That was kind of a process that went through my head right after the game.”

There’s no doubting Williams’ toughness after Sunday. The Texans beat Williams up and he kept getting up, kept trying to make plays out of seemingly nothing. Hunter and Will Anderson each had a sack and a half on Williams.

Caleb Williams took a beating from the Texans on Sunday night but remained standing. (Thomas Shea / USA Today)

Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair also hit Williams hard on the Bears’ sideline, leading to a scrum between players. Earlier, the Texans also took a shot on the sideline, which looked like a possible late penalty.

“Stand up, play the ball,” Williams said. “They didn’t throw the flag. Just stand up, play the ball and keep going.”

That’s endearing. But no one doubted the toughness of Fields or Mitch Trubisky. Jay Cutler’s toughness became part of his “Don’t Care” lore.

“I’m a little bruised,” Williams said. “Took a few hits today.”

The problem is we’re talking about Williams’ toughness when we should be talking more about touchdowns.

You expected some growing pains for Williams. You thought there would be some bad plays, even some bad interceptions. And you knew there would be mistakes.

What you didn’t expect were the problems that have seemed to blight the Bears’ seasons for years, regardless of head coaches, coordinators and quarterbacks, to manifest so early and so pervasively this season.

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This season was supposed to be different. Instead, the good vibes of training camp have quickly turned into a growing list of concerns, especially on the offensive end.

There is a different story to be written about the defense. In Week 1, it feasted on turnover-prone quarterback Will Levis and the Tennessee Titans to pull out a win. On Sunday, the defense was good enough to give Williams and the offense a chance in the final two minutes.

But Williams and the attack are not yet good enough to succeed in those decisive moments of the match.

“We didn’t execute it the way we were supposed to,” Williams said.

Not at all.

When are the Bears getting there?

The Bears can’t run the ball, and they can’t protect Williams consistently. Against the Texans, the penalties — including those on breaks — also mounted. It all adds up to a losing situation for a young quarterback.

Williams threw two interceptions to make plays when his team needed him. Part of that is learning what he can and can’t do in the NFL. That will happen. The other part felt very Bears-like.

Everything that was said after the loss to the Texans is everything we’ve heard before after similar losses. The offense is not on the same page. Protection is a team problem that goes beyond the offensive line. The problems are in the details. And there’s still plenty of time left in the season to fix their problems and win games this season.

That’s true. It’s only week 2. No one is reaching for the panic button yet.

But we know it’s there.

They are the Bears after all.

(Top photo: Eric Gay / Associated Press)