Sunday Night Football & Rookies Rivalry: Stroud vs. Williams in Bears vs Texans Showdown

The Week 2 Sunday night game around the NFL is the first-ever professional meeting between two talented young quarterbacks chosen in the top two of their respective drafts.

The rookie Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears visit reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans, who are nearly TD favorites on the NFL odds.

Chicago Bears +206

Caleb Williams made his NFL debut last Sunday vs. Tennessee and the No. 1 overall pick struggled mightily, and the Bears didn’t score an offensive TD yet rallied from down 17-0 to win 24-17. Since 2000, if you took the teams that were trailing by two or more scores at halftime and that didn’t manage to add a passing or rushing touchdown to their ledger before the end of the game, their record was 2-306 entering Week 1. Chicago made that 3-306.

Last Game

Jonathan Owens had a blocked punt return for a TD and Tyrique Stevenson had the winning INT return for a touchdown about midway through the fourth quarter. Pressure on third-and-6 created an overload on the right side of the offensive line, which flushed Titans QB Will Levis from the pocket and encouraged him to make a game-altering attempt to play hero ball. Levis & Co. had just 104 net passing yards on 35 drop backs against that very good Chicago defense.

Caleb Williams

Williams was just 14 of 29 passing for 93 yards and added five rushes for 15 yards. He was off target on 31% of his throws, while his longest completion was just 13 yards. The former Heisman winner failed to get anything going in either half, but he did show rapport with DJ Moore by completing passes of 13, 12 and 11 yards. Williams looked out of sync when throwing to his top wide receivers, going 10-of-23 for 76 yards when targeting Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze (3.3 yards per attempt), which included a drop by Allen at the goal line.

“I would say there’s not too much to it,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “I would just say as the chemistry builds throughout the course of the season 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.”

A positive was the fact that Williams didn’t have any turnovers, avoiding mistakes that could cost his team the game. He became the first quarterback drafted No. 1 overall to win his debut since David Carr in 2002.

.@CALEBcsw is at the 🎙️ https://t.co/bxLfQAYo50

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 11, 2024

The First Game is Difficult

It’s not uncommon for future superstar quarterbacks to struggle in their first NFL game. For example, John Elway went 1-of-8 for 14 yards with an interception. Peyton Manning threw three picks on 37 passes. Troy Aikman was 17-of-35 for 180 yards in a shutout loss. Joe Montana was 5-of-12 for 36 yards. Ben Roethlisberger was 12-of-20 with two picks in a loss to the Ravens, and then proceeded to win his next 15 regular-season starts.

Rome Odunze

Odunze, the No. 9 overall pick in this year’s draft, injured his knee in the win and needed an MRI, but there was no significant damage and he is day-to-day. The former Washington wideout, who led the FBS in receiving in 2023, appeared to sustain the injury while blocking for a screen pass to Velus Jones Jr. late in the fourth quarter. Odunze played 77% of Chicago’s offensive snaps and had one catch for 11 yards.

Meanwhile, Allen took a rest day Wednesday and will be evaluated further Thursday. Allen dealt with a heel injury in August and briefly entered the medical tent Week 1, but he was able to retake the field. If Odunze and Allen are in any way limited Sunday versus the Texans, DeAndre Carter and Jones could be asked to step into larger roles behind DJ Moore.

Darrell Taylor

The defense was terrific against the Titans, led by newly acquired end Taylor, who made his Bears debut Sunday, just 16 days after he was acquired in a trade with Seattle. He quickly showed off his playmaking ability with 2.0 sacks against the Titans, including a key strip-sack early in the fourth quarter. The Chicago defense had three takeaways in the fourth: Taylor’s strip-sack set up a field goal, Stevenson returned an interception 43 yards to give the Bears their first lead of the game, and cornerback Jaylon Johnson sealed the win with a late interception.

As for Owens, who is married to USA gymnastics legend Simone Biles, his blocked punt return for a score was the first time that the Bears scored their first TD of a season on special teams in 26 years. The last player to accomplish the feat was Glyn Milburn, a Pro Bowl return specialist who brought back a kickoff 89 yards in a 24-23 loss to the Jaguars in the 1998 opener at Soldier Field.

The comeback from down 17 points tied for the fourth-largest comeback win in franchise history; the Bears twice overcame 20-point deficits in 2006 and 1987 victories over the Cardinals and Buccaneers, respectively, and rallied from 19 points down in a 2001 win over the 49ers.

Houston Texans -260

The defending AFC South champion Houston Texans were 29–27 winners in Indianapolis in a back-and-forth Week 1 matchup. Running back Joe Mixon, acquired this off season from Cincinnati, was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week after Mixon rumbled for 159 yards and a TD on 30 carries. In the second half, hammered away at the Indianapolis defense, rushing 21 more times for 114 yards.

Many of those runs came when the Texans needed to burn the clock, and the Colts knew it. The Texans were able to run 76 plays to Indy’s 43, and by the end of the game, the Colts’ defense was exhausted and unable to hold up.

“He stepped up big time for us,” Coach DeMeco Ryans said. “We needed him to run the ball. He did. They knew it was run, we knew it was run and he still made the play.”

The Texans’ running game currently has new-found respect around the league after finishing tied for 22nd last season with 96.9 yards a game, including 3.7 a carry. Mixon was the NFL’s top rusher after Week 1. Only two times in the Texans’ 23-year history have they finished a season ranked among the top-five teams in rushing. Expect offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik to continue emphasizing the running game because he knows what it can do to a defense. The Texans were 6-1 last season when they rushed for at least 100 yards. The last time they had a 1,000-yard rusher was 2019 with Carlos Hyde (1,070).

Stefon Diggs

Another new addition, Pro Bowl receiver Diggs, caught all six of his targets from CJ for 33 yards and two touchdowns. While Nico Collins remained the top downfield option for Stroud, Diggs made an immediate impact as a red-zone threat in his debut for the Texans. The former Bill put his new team in the lead for good with a nine-yard score early in the second quarter, then hauled in Houston’s final TD of the afternoon with a three-yard grab late in the fourth. It also was his first multiple-touchdown performance since Week 4 of last season.

“Those guys can step up and make plays no matter what the situation is,” Ryans said of his new duo. “When you can count on those guys to make plays, it’s huge for our team, not just the offense, but what they did for our entire team.”

Nico Collins

Collins had six catches for 117 yards, a 19.5-yard average. His leaping, 55-yard catch with two Colts all over him was exceptional, but his 12-yard catch on third-and-11 when the Texans were running out the clock was even more impressive.

CJ Stroud

Stroud, the 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year, completed 24 of 32 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns while 13 rushing yards on four carries. CJ Stroud did take four sacks, but otherwise, the Texans’ attack looked sharp. Stroud pushed his interception-less streak to 230 attempts.

While the offense played well, the defense allowed Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson to have three 50-plus-yard completions. Richardson had a 60-yard touchdown to wide receiver Alec Pierce and a 54-yard score to Ashton Dulin in the fourth quarter. You usually can’t win in the NFL allowing big plays like that.

Bears at Texans Info

When: Sunday, 8:15 PM ET
Where: NRG Stadium
TV: NBC
Radio: http://www.siriusxm.com/nfl
Stream Option: Peacock

Bears vs Texans Series History

The Texans haven’t been around that long, so the franchises have played only six times, with Houston leading 4-2 and also up 2-0 at home. However, the Bears have won the past two. They last played Sept. 25, 2022, in Chicago and the Bears prevailed 23-20 when Davis Mills was Houston’s starting QB and Justin Fields was for the Bears. Mills is now a backup in Houston and Fields in Pittsburgh.

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