CINCINNATI – After sitting out last weekend's preseason opener, most Bears starters saw limited action in Saturday night's 27-9 loss to the Bengals.
Caleb Williams and the No. 1 offense played only the opening possession of the game, marching 33 yards on eight plays to set up Cairo Santos' 45-yard field goal. The unit picked up two first downs, reaching the Bengals' 17, before a holding penalty on left tackle Braxton Jones stalled the drive.
Williams completed his first two passes for 18 yards to Rome Odunze and 10 yards to Colston Loveland before misfiring on his final three throws.
Cincinnati answered with a 14-play, 62-yard drive that was capped by Evan McPherson's 25-yard field goal, tying the score 3-3 with 4:40 left in the first quarter. Starting in place of star quarterback Joe Burrow, veteran Josh Johnson completed 7 of 10 passes for 55 yards on the possession.
Most of the starting defense exited after that, with only linemen Dayo Odeyingbo and Gervon Dexter Sr. playing a second drive.
Coach Ben Johnson revealed after the game that Bears first-teamers played Saturday night because they didn't get enough practice reps during the week, saying: "We felt like we needed this work."
With backup Tyson Bagent sidelined due to an injury, Case Keenum replaced Williams. On his second possession, the veteran quarterback completed a 26-yard pass to rookie tight end Sam Roush, setting up Santos' 26-yard field goal that gave the Bears a 6-3 lead early in the second quarter.
The Bengals then took control by scoring touchdowns on their next three drives, surging to a 24-9 lead early in the third quarter en route to the win.
"Overall, it doesn't matter if it's preseason or not; it's a bad feeling in that locker room after the game when you lose, particularly like that," Johnson said. "When [you're] down by multiple scores, you don't feel like you made it very close there at the end …
"I said it at halftime to the crew: Just the penalties and the third downs on both sides of the ball, they really hurt us in the first half, and we weren't able to get those cleaned up there in the second half. Eleven penalties for the game. We were 2 of 14 on third down on offense and we allowed 6 of 13 on defense, so not quite good enough. And when you add in the red zone, the fact that we were able to move the ball at times OK, but we couldn't end up with touchdowns … those are major killers when you're facing a good team like that."
The Bengals took their first lead at 10-6 on Johnson's 17-yard TD pass to receiver Colbie Young in the right corner of the end zone with 4:25 left in the second quarter.
After a Bears punt, Cincinnati marched 63 yards on five plays capped by Johnson's 6-yard TD pass to tight end Tanner Hudson, widening the margin to 17-6 with :23 remaining in the half.
The Bears responded, closing the gap to 17-9 on Santos' 44-yard field goal, his third of the game without a miss, as time expired in the first half. The kick came after Keenum had spiked the ball to kill the clock with :01 remaining after connecting with receiver JP Richardson for a 19-yard gain.
Keenum exited at halftime in favor of Miller Moss after completing 9 of 17 passes for 119 yards and a 75.4 passer rating.
The Bengals opened the second half by extending their lead to 24-9 on quarterback Sean Clifford's 20-yard TD pass to receiver Noah Thomas.
McPherson's 58-yard field goal made it 27-9 early in the fourth quarter.
Defensive back Skylar Thomas generated the Bears' first takeaway, intercepting a Clifford pass at midfield. But Santos missed a 53-yard field goal try wide right.
One bright spot in the game was the Bears' run defense, which limited the Bengals to 64 yards on 20 carries, a 3.2-yard average.
"We're just trying to get out of our stance and strike blocks," Johnson said. "Our linebackers are doing a good job communicating and filling gaps, and we have our little guys that are willing tacklers. I think they're doing a good job tackling in space for the most part through two games so far."
