Bears coach Matt Eberflus met the media Monday after watching tape of Sunday's 24-17 season-opening win over the Titans. Here are five things we learned from that session:
(1) Eberflus singled out eight players for their performance against Tennessee: Daniel Hardy, Cairo Santos and DeAndre Carter on special teams; defensive ends Darrell Taylor and DeMarcus Walker, linebacker T.J. Edwards and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson on defense; and receiver DJ Moore on offense.
Hardy provided a spark by blocking a punt that Jonathan Owens returned 21 yards for a touchdown that drew the Bears to within 17-10 early in the third quarter. Santos made all three of his field goal attempts, including a 50-yarder. And Carter returned five punts for 64 yards and one kickoff for 67 yards.
Taylor registered two sacks, including a strip-sack that resulted in one of three fourth-quarter takeaways by the defense. Stevenson returned an interception 43 yards for a touchdown, alertly catching a pass that quarterback Will Levis tried to fling out of bounds to avoid being sacked by Walker. Edwards led the Bears with 15 tackles and recovered the fumble that Taylor caused.
Moore led the Bears with five receptions for 36 yards, including a 13-yarder late in the first half that helped set up Santos' 24-yard field goal.
"We thought DJ had a really good performance in terms of his operation and his catching and running after the catch," Eberflus said. "My favorite play for him was the one that he dug it out. We were going to a four-minute mode, threw a screen out there, gave a little hesitation and got it out of there and dug it out there. To be able to flip the field, I thought it was a really nice play by him."
(2) Many of the key contributors in Sunday's comeback win were unheralded reserves such as Hardy, Carter, Taylor and Owens.
"It's a lot of fun to watch those guys because they work very hard, and you see those guys working day-in and day-out," Eberflus said. "They work on the show team, they work on special teams. They give our guys a look. Then it gets to gameday, and they actually perform very well at their jobs. To me, that's exciting. It's fun to watch those guys because they put so much into it."
(3) Caleb Williams did not play as well as he had hoped in his NFL debut, but Eberflus saw some positives in the rookie quarterback's outing.
Williams completed 14 of 29 passes for 93 yards with no turnovers and a 55.7 passer rating.
"His footwork [was] a little bit off at times, but he threw a lot of good passes, too," Eberflus said. "I thought his vision was good. I thought he saw it well. I thought he saw the coverage contours. He saw zero and then adjusted on the fly in terms of post-snap. I thought he did a nice job."
Eberflus did not blame Williams for taking a sack that lost 19 yards in the first quarter. The rookie was immediately pressured by defensive end Keondre Coburn. Williams spun away from Coburn but couldn't elude defensive end Sebastian Joseph-Day.
"You've just got to really stop that penetration," Eberflus said. "They can't get on the quarterback that fast. He tried to evade the sack, he tried to move around, they just got him too fast.
"When you turn around like that and he's right on top of you, I don't know, I'm not out there playing, but my evaluation there is he took care of the football, which he did all day. In the pocket, I know he had those two sacks, but did a nice job of taking care of the football. And that was really the difference in the game. The quarterback on the opposing team had the giveaways and we didn't."
Eberflus was asked about a couple of overthrown passes, including one deep down the left sideline intended for receiver Keenan Allen in the first quarter.
"I would say there's not too much to it," Eberflus said. "I would just say as the chemistry builds throughout the course of the season here as we stack these games up, it's going to get better. He's got a very accurate arm. His timing is good. And the chemistry with the receivers is going to improve every week."
Eberflus cited a 12-yard completion to Moore early in the second half as one of Williams' best passes of the game.
"There was a lot of good throws," Eberflus said. "I mean there was that third-and-5, the stop route to DJ. I thought that was excellent. I thought the rhythm and timing was good there. Accuracy was great, and he had several of those. So we've just got to build upon the positives, learn what we need to improve on, reinvest in our team, grow and improve, and that's all what we're doing with our coaches this week."
(4) Eberflus credited the improvement the run defense made in the second half to better fundamental play.
After permitting 116 yards on 16 carries in the first half, the Bears held the Titans to 25 yards on 10 attempts in the second half.
"Really it's just about playing technique better," Eberflus said. "We called some different things in the second half, but really it wasn't about that. It's more about us just playing the technique better, the fundamentals better, understanding what they were trying to do and how they were trying to do it in terms of attacking us and us just playing better fundamentally."
(5) Eberflus revealed that rookie receiver Rome Odunze was scheduled to undergo an MRI exam Monday on his knee after injuring it while blocking on a Velus Jones Jr. running play in the fourth quarter.
"We will have to see where that is," Eberflus said. "He's getting an MRI today, and we will see where it goes from there … Hopefully he will be fine."
