Stock up, stock down: Bears-Texans review

The Chicago Bears won a game, and that’s usually a cause for celebration, or at least a nice feeling to carry into the work week.

But in 2022, here we are, melting down about a win because this season, the wins don’t matter.

That’s right, wins this year are like points in Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Look, wins are hard to come by in this league, but don’t let anyone fool you. 2022 is about figuring out what the Bears have in Justin Fields and developing him for their future.

Wins aren’t the end all, be all this year.

But before we get to that quarterback, let’s look at some good and some other bad performances from the win over the Houston Texans.

Stock up

Khalil Herbert, RB - Losing David Montgomery is not a good thing for this team. But Khalil Herbert showed, against a bad rush defense, that he can carry the workload. I think that the Bears are going to be in good hands while Montgomery is out. Two touchdowns, 157 yards.

Equanimeous St. Brown, WR - St. Brown had just 63 yards on three touches Sunday (two rushes and one catch), but I wanted to mention him in stock up because, after three games, he’s been the Bears’ best offensive non-running back playmaker. He seems to do the most with opportunities and make plays each game.

Roquan Smith, LB - Last week, he was on the down list, but he was a difference maker this week. He was shooting out of a cannon, in the backfield, downfield. It still wasn’t perfect, but it was good stuff. His game-saving interception was a thing of beauty. The break he had from reading Davis Mills’ eyes was very good. Even if the ball hadn’t been tipped, I think he at least breaks it up. More of this, Smith.

Stock down

Kindle Vildor, CB - Without Jaylon Johnson and with Kyler Gordon’s ongoing struggles to adjust to the NFL, we knew that Vildor was going to get targeted, and he did. He wasn’t awful, but he still showed that the Bears’ secondary is thin in injuries. Vildor was burned a couple of times, including for a touchdown Sunday.

Al-Quadin Muhammad, DE - He’s played 61 percent of the defensive snaps and is a starter, but he’s yet to record a sack. Against the Texans, he had four assisted tackles. He has three hurries in three games, and that’s about it.

Justin Fields, QB - All right, the elephant in the room. Justin Fields was flat-out bad on Sunday. We know the stat line, 8-of-17 for 106 yards and two interceptions. Clearly, Fields is having some confidence issues. He’s not trusting what he’s seeing. All we can do is speculate about why that is. Can he not process what he’s seeing? Is it that he doesn’t trust the pieces around him? His offensive line? Is he too focused on his improved mechanics that he can’t comfortably function yet?

I don’t know the answer, and I doubt there are many people who do but sit tight, there are going to be 14 more games to figure out what they have in Fields. We’ll have a better idea, and all we can do now is overreact and jump to conclusions.

It’s not great right now, but it’s still too soon to throw in the towel. At least that’s my two cents.

Who do you think was up and down last week? Who did I miss? Sound off below or find me on Twitter @SamHouseholder.