Tevin Jenkins was just a few minutes removed from a 19-13 loss to the Houston Texans, without the benefit of time or film review to analyze what went wrong on Sunday night.

The Bears left guard could’ve been excused for sidestepping a question on points of focus heading into Week 3.

He didn’t do that. Jenkins answer was clear, concise and didn’t require deep thought.

“Protecting Caleb.”

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Nailed it. That’s a top priority following a game where rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was under constant duress. The Texans lived in the Bears backfield, creating 36 total pressures, per NextGen Stats, with 17 coming from edge rushers Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter.

“I’m a little bruised up,” Williams said. “I took a couple hits.”

Certainly, more than a couple. Williams was sacked seven times and hit 11 times in total.

The Texans also blitzed a ton. Williams was blitzed on 47.1-percent of his dropbacks, per NextGen Stats, the highest blitz rate by Houston since DeMeco Ryans took over as head coach.

Williams didn’t handle the blitz well at all. The USC product completed just 3 of 12 attempts for 15 yards and an interception. Also, he was sacked five of the seven times while being blitzed.

All that havoc was created despite Williams having the sixth fastest time to throw, per NextGen Stats. He was pressured quickly, often forced to throw the ball before he was ready.

And, after Houston’s success blitzing Williams, expect to see heavy doses of that from every defensive coordinator until the Bears find a way to stop it through a multi-pronged approach we’ll discuss in a bit.

All that trouble came after Williams started hot, completing his first eight passes of the night. Williams completed 76 percent of his attempts while working from a clean pocket, per Pro Football Focus, for 141 of his 174 passing yards.

Williams completed just 33 percent of his passes under pressure and was scrambling when he threw both of his interceptions. Another note, this one per ESPN Stats and Info, that Williams was 0-for-7 on passes traveling 15-plus air yards falling in that category.

All those numbers reinforce a larger point, that the Bears must do work to keep the quarterback clean. That’s not just about telling the offensive front to block better. The entire operation must improve, from pre-snap calls and adjustments at the line of scrimmage to blitz pick-ups and hot routes designed to make the best of a difficult situation. Thought, yes, sometimes simply winning one-on-one matchups will help.

There’s another element at play here, and that’s running the ball better. Staying on schedule and out of obvious passing situations can keep defensive fronts honest, something that didn’t happen Sunday night when the running game couldn’t get going.

“When you’re able to run the ball and move the ball and stay ahead of the chains, you don’t get those types of pressures in that where we know you’re all pass protection,” head coach Matt Eberflus said on Monday. “So we have to do a really good job with that coming forward and not creating those distances that aren’t favorable for us on offense that we can rely more on the quick passing, rely more on to converted third downs, and really getting first downs on first and second down, not even getting to third down. That’s what we’re searching for. We’re hunting for that.”

Getting the offense going is crucial, even in the season’s early going. There’s talent here and elements that aren’t being explosive at this stage. As we saw on Sunday night, everything gets harder when you can’t do the basic stuff right. Blocking and running the ball efficiently opens up so many other things.

“There’s a lot that goes into (protecting the quarterback),” Kmet said on Monday. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a talent issue necessarily up front. I don’t think we were necessarily getting overmatched totally physically up front. But I think us getting on the same page mentally speaking can lead to those adjustments, and we can kinda see those sacks come down a little bit.”

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