The Chicago Bears vs Houston Texans matchup will be filled with star-studded talent, making it the perfect matchup for Sunday Night Football in Week 2.
Beyond the two young, rising quarterbacks set to face off on center stage in a primetime matchup, this game will have plenty of top head-to-head battles to watch.
Here are some of the top matchups outside of the quarterback position worth focusing on during Sunday night's game to close out the weekend.
1. Stefon Diggs vs Jaylon Johnson
The biggest battle on Sunday will be an easy one to pay attention to. Just look for #1 lining up against #1.
Stefon Diggs is clearly the Texans most dangerous weapon, but the Bears secondary will have their hands full guarding Nico Collins and Tank Dell as well. Cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson were able to lock down some top wide receivers in the season opener, but these three will be a different beast to conquer.
Ideally, you'd like to have the top cornerback (Johnson) matchup up with the top receiver (Diggs) during a game. Unfortunately, with how the Texans align and move their three weapons, matching players every single down will be a difficult challenge. When it inevitably does happen, the Bears seem to be confident in their guy.
"We have to be prepared for all contingences as far as the route concepts that we see," Bears defensive coordinator Eric Washington said . "I'm sure that they'll move Stefon around so that we can't identify and pin point one location for him and design our plan around that. Wherever he ends up in terms of the route concept, we have to make sure we execute the coverage...
[Johnson's] ready. When he needs to make a play or when he needs to make sure that we take away one of their top receivers, we know that he's capable of that challenge."
2. DJ Moore vs Derek Stingley Jr.
During the Texans' Week 1 win against the Indianapolis Colts, Houston's secondary struggled against the deep ball with the unit allowing three 50+ yard completions. After one game, it's hard to identify that has an exploit for the Bears to target offensively, but it will be something the group will look to test on Sunday night.
"You know they're going to try and take advantage of those things," Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said . "Obviously, we shouldn't be in those positions. I would anticipate people trying to test us on [the deep ball] until we prove that it's not a good route to take against us."
The main deep threat for the Bears will be wide receiver DJ Moore. In 2023, Moore was one of the top deep ball targets during the regular season but we didn't see Moore getting vertical that much last week against the Tennessee Titans.
Sunday's game presents a good opportunity to add those types of looks into the gameplan and the man tasked with defending Moore deep will be cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. Stingley allowed just three receptions for 12 yards Week 1 but helped give up this long touchdown after having some miscommunication in the secondary.
3. Will Anderson Jr. & Danielle Hunter vs Braxton Jones & Darnell Wright
After registering seven total pressures and two sacks in the season opener, the Texans defensive front will be looking to get after rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. However, given Williams ability to work outside the pocket and improvise on the fly, that's going to be an even tougher task for Houston compared to last week against a mobile quarterback in Anthony Richardson.
"I think it's similar with the quarterback this week in terms of getting out of the pocket," Burke said . "We have to rush as a unit. [Williams] looks to throw more than run when he's out of the pocket so we have to rush as a group and rush coordinated."
The top two guys who will be looking to keep Williams out of his rhythm on Sunday will be edge rushers Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. While neither player managed to hit home in Week 1, containing the edge will be more important than landing a sack against Williams.
And they'll be up against two stout offensive tackles in Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright. Jones and Wright combined to allow only one pressure against the Titans on 33 pass blocking snaps. This could be an underrated storyline to follow in this one.
4. Joe Mixon vs Bears Defensive Front
After winning AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors in his debut with the Texans, it doesn't sound like the offense will lighten the load on Joe Mixon coming off a 30 carry game where he led the NFL in scrimmage yards.
Mixon will be yet another dangerous weapon for the Bears defense to defend and how offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik operated the run game last week will lead to even more challenges to matchup against schematically.
"Number one, their run inventory creates some issues for you," Washington said . "They can go from a gap scheme concept with pullers to an outside zone looking to cut the football back. They got a nice blend of run concepts that you have to do a really good job of addressing and fitting, especially when they start to pull an offensive lineman."
Washington was really impressed with how his unit responded last week in the second half after giving up 115 rushing yards in the first two quarters. His group will have to tighten the line down early because Mixon will be coming strong out of the gate.
5. Montez Sweat vs Tytus Howard & Shaq Mason
Montez Sweat is easily going to be the Texans biggest challenge on the offensive line. Sweat usually always rushes from the right side of the offensive line and will be aligning either inside or outside during the game. This presents a big matchup for right tackle Tytus Howard and right guard Shaq Mason.
In Week 1, Sweat saw a lot of added attention from the Titans in pass protection, leaving other defenders to win in favorable matchups. According to Next Gen Stats, five of the Bears defensive linemen had at least three pressures, including five from Darrell Taylor, DeMarcus Walker, and Andrew Billings.
Clearly putting extra help to limit Sweat's production wasn't a favorable decision for the Titans to make and the Texans have to plan accordingly. Which means Howard and Mason will have to contain Sweat all on their own or risk the other pass rushers getting free and making an impact instead.
6. Deandre Carter vs Texans Return Coverage
We just had to throw in one special teams matchup when these two teams are going head-to-head. Both the Texans and Bears take a lot of pride in special teams and believe the units can play a huge part in finding team success.
In Week 1, both teams had some issues in that area however. For the Bears, it was returner Velus Jones Jr. muffing a return that the Titans recovered . For the Texans, it was allowing Anthony Gould to have the fourth-most kick return yardage of the week.
The Bears seemingly fixed their problem after replacing Jones with special teams ace Deandre Carter after the fumble. On his first return, Carter gained 67 yards, the second longest return of the opening weekend.
"The blockers did a great job for him," Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said . "He did a great job getting the ball in plus territory, flipping the field for us a couple different times. He's an unselfish player and he just wanted all of the credit to go to the people that were blocking for him. Selfless human being."
We won't know until Sunday if the Texans were able to find an answer to their special teams problems they faced in Week 1. Based on how Carter played, they'll need to.
Related: Texans biggest weakness in Week 1 could set up Bears WR DJ Moore for a big game on Sunday Night Football
Local News
Comments / 0