CHICAGO (WGN) — Caleb Williams made big strides against the Houston Texans. The defense even held up. But it didn’t matter because the Chicago Bears looked like Velma without her glasses trying to block.

Before Scooby Doo inspired my writing and we all witnessed Sunday night’s adventures, my evening started as expected.

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I burst through the front door of my apartment around 7:30pm, a 12-pack of Coors Banquet in hand because it was on sale for $8 at Jewel Osco (a bargain is a bargain, right?).

Chance, my roommate’s dog, slides off the couch, stretches, and sniffs me like I always do when I get home.

A few pats for the good boy later, I turn to look at the TV screen in our living room. Ka’Imi Fairbairn has just scored his first field goal of the night to give the Texans a 3-0 lead.

I shrug and think, “Not the worst start in the world.”

The hands of the clock tick as dinner is prepared.

As I finish my meal, the game clock on the TV shows 1:45 until the end of the fourth quarter. Houston is ahead 19-13.

At this point I was hoping Williams would get a good pre-game workout in, and another good post-game workout (followed by an ice bath), because man, did he have a rough time Sunday night.

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The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner finished his day with 23/37 shooting for 174 passing yards and two interceptions, but that wasn’t the night’s headliner.

The Texans recorded seven sacks and 11 QB hits on 36 pressures by the time the clock reached zero, resulting in an astronomical 81.8% pressure percentage on 44 drop-backs.

My first reflex was to blame the offensive line. After all, it would be a bit of a cliché for the Bears to condemn a quarterback to spend four months or more as a piñata in the pocket.

But then I took a breath and thought: there’s definitely more to unpack.

“Protection is everybody,” head coach Matt Eberflus said during the postgame press conference. “Protection is the tight ends. It’s the runners. It’s the offensive line. It’s the quarterback. It’s everybody that’s involved.”

There you have it. I’ll say the soft part out loud.

On Sunday evening everyone was poorly protected.

It wasn’t just the three blind mice rolling out to block the air on a D’Andre Swift handoff. No. It was the penalties, too, from false starts to formation violations, delay of game, intentional grounding and old reliable offensive holding.

Williams looked surgical on the game’s first drive, but was later forced to the turf for failing to throw the quick screen.

It was so much. But to blame only the offensive line would be unfair.

“It’s just a matter of us getting better at him,” Cole Kmet said Monday. “And then he’s got to get used to the NFL style of play, but he’s been great. I’m not worried about him at all. His attitude is great and that’s what’s going to help him continue to grow as the season goes on.”

I agree with Kmet’s opinion about Williams’ attitude.

His approach to being a quarterback in the NFL is littered with green flags. He combines an innate self-confidence with an undying belief in his teammates. His central goal, as he has said time and again, is to win football games, and his work ethic in pursuit of victory borders on a fanaticism known only to the handful of athletes I watched while on planet Earth.

But unlike Kmet, I’m worried. Not about Williams, but about him.

He’ll undoubtedly make the proverbial rookie mistakes that everyone makes as they grow into their role (unless your name is CJ Stroud, apparently).

But while he’s doing that, the Bears need to have safety nets to catch him when he falls, or at the very least bumpers to guide him to the pins of success, which was definitely not the case against Houston.

Sunday felt like the equivalent of a mother bird pushing her baby out of the nest on top of the Willis Tower and saying, “Good luck, son! I hope you can fly!”

Fly without pass blocking and play a run game.

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“We’ve got to establish the run game,” Eberflus said after the game. “I think it’s always a good friend for a young quarterback if you can do that.”

Swift finished his day with 14 carries for 18 yards. Travis Homer and Khalil Herbert combined for 3 carries for 9 yards.

Williams, by the way, had a decent day on the ground, which I think was due to the fact that he was fighting for his life.

The former USC Trojan and Oklahoma Sooner carried the ball five times for 44 yards (8.8 YPC), including a game-high 24-yard run in the fourth quarter.

As much as I’ve complained about the Bears, you’d think they lost 48-0 to the Texans.

Fortunately, the defense was as promised.

The linebacking corps flew around like crazy the entire game. Tremaine Edmunds, TJ Edwards and Jack Sanborn combined for 21 tackles, three tackles-for-loss and two of Chicago’s three sacks.

With it looking like Stroud and the Texans offense were about to put the final nail in the Bears’ coffin, defensive back Andrew Billings headed the ball away from Houston running back Cam Akers at the four-yard line, breathing new life into Chicago’s chances for victory with under three minutes remaining.

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And don’t forget Kyler Gordon — nicknamed “Spider-Man” — who, if he could have shot webs from his wrists, likely would have hauled in the Bears’ second pick-six in as many weeks to take the lead around the four-minute mark of the third quarter.

Instead, the ball bounced around as it went to ground, and replays confirmed the pass was incomplete.

“I was proud of the defense, too. The defense played well,” Eberflus said. “… The fumble right at the end, which gave us a chance to win it right at the end. The third down stops and the way they played in the second half was really good, too.

“But again, I told them we win as a team. We lose as a team.”

That’s why the team is going back to the drawing board this week and preparing for the Indianapolis Colts, whom they visit on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Hopefully Velma finds her glasses and rediscovers the run game, or Williams will have a long stretch before his date with the Colts pass rush.

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