We'll see when we start playing better teams. The Colts and Panthers don't have shit at WR and the Rams had a ton of injuries. So the Bears performed well relative to the talent they've faced when it comes to everyone ever not named Johnson.
The Bears need to hold up big against deeper teams in the division.
The DBs kept pace with the Texans WRs, and only Nico Collins found a way to have a large impact. When you compare that with the game the Texans just had with Buffalo (who is objectively a team competitive for the playoffs), you will note that while Nico Collins didnt quite have the game he had against us, the rest of the team flourished around him.
I am not saying we are the best in the league, but consider the above. The Texans were a team considered to have one of the best groups of WRs (the Bears being talked about among them) - our DBs had a great day against them, where the only one of them who could break out for anything was Collins, who was a breakout star last year.
And when you watch the reps, you'll see that most of Collins' success came on slant plays against good coverage. When you look at our DBs, he truly beat his man four times, and the rest were yards that are just designed to be there (his touchdown, he crosses three defenders holding their zone, so I count that as a WR knowing how to play against the defense in front of him, and not the D failing at its job). The rest of the time, he hits a slant vs a soft zone, which is the right playcall at the right time. (
Edit - 8 catches and 10 targets, I credit Nico Collins on truly beating this defense beyond what he should have gotten on four of those; his touchdown was finding the right spot in the zone and beat the whole defense. His catch on the Stroud Scramble beats Byard + JJ on a tight window at the sideline. At 13:10 mark in the third quarter, he wins his slant against Stevenson for extra yards he shouldn't have gotten. At the top of the 4th quarter, he beats Stevenson who was playing too far to the sideline for his assignment.)
Diggs has a career of being a stud WR and has a career average of above 12 yards per catch - we held him to 4 catches and 37 yards, with one chunk play eating up most of those yards. Tank Dell was a rookie breakout last year, we held him in check for sure. That was a playoff-competitive team with top WR options and a rising QB, I think that is a good barometer of how good our DBs are. To that end, I am less worried about playing better groups of WRs, and instead worried about playing better QBs that can hit tight windows quickly.
