Rozner: Familiar story for Chicago Bears in opening defeat

The thinking here was that the Chicago Bears did enough in the off-season to be just a little bit better in 2016.

After one game, it's fair to say that the Bears are just a little bit better.

And that's not going to be nearly enough to prevent them from losing close games again.

In a league where there's a sliver's difference between winning and losing, the Texans made more plays than did the visitors and Houston beat the Bears at home 23-14 on Sunday afternoon.

The Bears are 0-1 for the third straight season after starting on the road for the first time since 2009, when Jay Cutler made his Bears debut in Green Bay and threw 4 interceptions in a Packers victory.

This one was hardly on Cutler. He did the best he could behind an offensive line that held up in the first half against a very strong Houston pass rush but fell apart in the second half when the Texans hammered Cutler early and often.

Cutler was hit hard no less than eight times Sunday, and it's no stretch to think he won't survive long taking this kind of beating.

Still, the Bears had the lead and possession of the ball late in the third quarter when Alshon Jeffery was wide open on third down and Cutler hit him right in the numbers for what should have been an easy first down.

The ball bounced off Jeffery's chest and fell harmlessly to the ground with 2:45 remaining in the third, and the Bears were forced to punt.

Houston took the ball and walked down the field, scoring to take the lead for good. The Bears were helpless on offense in the second half, managing just 71 yards with a fumble, an interception and 5 sacks, while being outscored 13-0.

The Bears' defense could not handle the $72 million man, Houston QB Brock Osweiler, who beat the Bears last year at Soldier Field as a member of the Broncos but hardly looked Sunday like he's headed to the Pro Bowl.

Osweiler continually threw the ball behind his receivers, and that led to an early interception for Tracy Porter. But Osweiler was good enough to take apart a weak Bears secondary, which had only 4 picks in 2015.

There was some good, however, like linebacker Jerrell Freeman, who was all over the field and led the Bears with 17 combined tackles. Leonard Floyd picked up his first sack in his first game.

But there was too much bad to win an NFL game.

The Bears were up 7-0 and had a fourth-and-inches on the Houston 31 when rookie center Cody Whitehair — who's had the job for a week — messed up the exchange and Cutler was unable to sneak for the first down.

Rookie Kevin White, also playing his first game, broke off his route, leading to a Cutler interception on the second play of the second half and a field goal for the Texans.

“That was just poor execution,” said head coach John Fox. “I don't like to get into the blame game, but obviously it wasn't executed very well.”

Three separate times, Cutler was seen giving a frustrated hand signal to White, who struggled to read the defense and the quarterback all day.

“I'll talk to (White) about it. You know, first game out there,” said Cutler. “But it left my hand. My responsibility. So it is what it is.

“We need him. He's gonna be fine. We're not worried about him. We like our group of receivers.”

Much of this is hardly a surprise, with players like White and Whitehair playing their first NFL snaps against one of the best defenses in the NFL.

It's not at all surprising to see players struggling in their first opportunities, but White was drafted with the first pick in 2015 to be a difference-maker, and that was hardly the case Sunday.

One of their big-free agent signings, right tackle Bobby Massie, lived up to his billing as a solid run blocker, but he was awful in pass blocking and the Texans picked on him all day.

And while Jeffery began his campaign for big money with a significant drop, and White looked lost on an NFL field for the first time, Notre Dame product and Houston first-round rookie Will Fuller shredded the Bears' secondary to the tune of 5 catches and 107 yards with the go-ahead touchdown.

Houston has playmakers all over the field on both sides of the ball, and those stars made the difference Sunday.

What you saw from the Bears was much like what you saw a year ago, a lack of playmakers able to change the game in crunchtime.

The Bears didn't think they were going anywhere this season, but if they're going to get this program moving in the right direction down the road, they need to find some guys who can change the game.

As we speak, that search continues.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him on @BarryRozner on Twitter.