5 takeaways from Bears' flat loss to the Bengals — Yahoo Sports

RESOLVING THE LEDGER

5 takeaways from Bears' flat loss to the Bengals — Yahoo Sports | AIPROPX

The Chicago Bears got through their second preseason game of the year on Saturday night when they visited the Cincinnati Bengals , and for the first time in years, they lost. Head coach Ben Johnson's team couldn't match the Bengals' strong offensive outing, losing 27-9 in the Queen City.

Leading up to the game, the mystery as to whether or not the Bears would play their starters was finally answered as quarterback Caleb Williams and much of the starting offense was set to take the field. With Williams at the helm, the Bears settled for a field goal on the opening drive, which was matched the Bengals, who had their backups going against the Bears' starting defense.

While the Bears continued settling for field goals, however, Cincinnati began attacking downfield to score touchdowns and pull away. When it was all said and done, the Bears failed to score a touchdown, converted just 2 of 14 third downs, and committed 11 penalties.

Here are our takeaways from the Bears' lackluster loss to the Bengals:

1. That was a slog to get through

We'll get to the individual takeaways in a moment, but can we collectively bemoan Saturday's game as such a boring experience? Saturday night is supposed to be the best night of the week, and the Bears provided the worst entertainment imaginable. They didn't score a touchdown; the offense didn't even make it to the red zone in the second half and probably only had about four exciting plays all game long. And they committed 11 penalties. Even with the carrot that the starters would see action, this preseason game was one of the worst we've had in quite some time, and you deserve some form of compensation if you watched from start to finish.

2. Caleb Williams and the starting offense was fine

When it was revealed the Williams and the starting offense would see playing time on Saturday, Johnson indicated they would play "as long as he needs to" in the coach's mind. It turns out that would be just one series and 10 plays. Williams and the starters were fine overall, completing multiple passes and moving down the field to get points, but ultimately stumbling in the red zone when they were threatening to get a touchdown.

The Bears starting quarterback completed 2 of 5 passes for 28 yards, hitting wide receiver Rome Odunze on a boot leg to the left side and tight end Colston Loveland on a quick out route that moved the chains. Running back Roschon Johnson was adequate as well with the Bears adding in five runs on the drive as well. It wasn't until the Braxton Jones holding penalty that things fell apart. Williams airmailed a pass to Loveland near the goal line, he had a pass batted at the line, and Odunze got tangled up with the Bengals secondary to force the field goal.

All in all, it's kind of what we saw from Williams and the offense last year. Promising drives early on that ended deep in enemy territory. It wasn't great but it wasn't horrible, either. Perhaps if Williams got another crack at the defense to settle down a bit, they would have marched into the end zone.

3. Left tackle is still a problem

With the return of Jones to the starting offensive line, the hope is that we would see him stand out as a clear upgrade to Kiran Amegadjie and Jedrick Wills after last week's tough outing. Unfortunately, Jones still looks overmatched, and the Bears still appear to have a problem at the position. At least until Ozzy Trapilo is healthy enough to return to game action.

Jones struggled with bull rushes and had the costly penalty, but it didn't end there. Theo Benedet picked up where Jones left off, struggling to contain the Bengals' pass rush on the left side. Both players were liabilities in pass protection, though Benedet performs well in run blocking. And things didn't get better when Amegadjie entered late in the game as he was barely able to contain his assignment.

The Bears have to be praying Trapilo is able to play sooner rather than later after he was activated off the physically unable to perform (PUP) list last weekend. Otherwise maybe the team scours the available free agents and brings in another stopgap until then because they shouldn't feel comfortable about any of their current healthy options.

4. Jordan van den Berg looks like a steal

It's not hard to find the biggest bright spot of the night for the Bears. That would be the play of rookie defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg, who has flashed throughout practice, and it has carried over to the preseason. Van den Berg got consistent pressure up front to flush the Bengals quarterbacks out of the pocket. He finished with three tackles, but his impact goes beyond the box score. He chased down multiple players to force tackles or incompletions and was double-teamed a few times by the Bengals' offensive line.

Though his impact dipped as the game wore on, van den Berg's unique blend of strength and speed, combined with his high motor, is exciting for the Bears' defensive line. They need all the help they can get and it looks like van den Berg is on his way towards being a regular contributor.

5. It's clear who is falling to the bottom of the barrel

Normally about this time in the preseason, we're all coming up with our list of players near the bottom of the roster who deserve a chance to stick with the team when the regular season begins. Those players begin standing out during practice and continue those strong performances during the preseason, like van den Berg for example. But through two games, very few players are making their case to stay.

Undrafted quarterback Miller Moss looked like a deer in the headlights on Saturday, while wide receiver J.P. Richardson made numerous mistakes on both offense and special teams. The secondary, which performed well last week, was burnt to a crisp by the Bengals' reserves, and even Week 1 star Jamree Kromah became invisible as he didn&#3...