The mood was glum late in the first half Sunday at Soldier Field with the Chicago Bears trailing the Tennessee Titans 17-0 in their season opener and showing few signs of life.

Dropped passes, fumbled kickoffs, sloppy penalties. The start of the game was a total buzzkill for Bears fans who bounced into the season with such high hopes.

But then the Bears awakened and rallied. Starting with a blocked punt by Daniel Hardy, which Jonathan Owens returned 21 yards for a touchdown, the Bears made a series of game-changing plays on special teams and defense and clawed their way to an improbable 24-17 victory.

Next up: a Week 2 prime-time showdown in Houston against the Texans.

But first, Tribune writers Dan Wiederer and Colleen Kane assess all that happened Sunday, offering layered analysis in true-or-false format.

True or false: Caleb Williams’ first NFL start was worth crumpling up and throwing in the trash

Dan Wiederer: False. False, false, false. To the contrary.

As crazy as it may sound, Sunday’s debut for Williams may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Sure, the numbers were pretty ugly: 14 of 29, 93 yards, no touchdowns and a 55.7 passer rating. And the video was even uglier, evidence of a rookie quarterback who never found his rhythm, didn’t have his “A” stuff and had only four completions of more than 10 yards — and none longer than 13 — in 33 designed passing plays.

But I’m serious when I say this is a performance Williams should and will wrap his arms around, leaning into his struggles as a valuable learning experience.

“I understand that I need to be better,” Williams said. “And I will be better.”

It was an out-of-the-gates reminder of how fast the NFL game moves and how steep the rookie learning curve will be. It was a sobering cue to how much work the Bears offense has ahead to carve out an identity. It was a bucket of cold water dousing a pronounced buildup of hype regarding Williams’ potential.

But for a player with such an earnest and constant desire to learn, this also should turn out to be stimulating as Williams seeks to steady himself and the offense heading into Week 2. And it certainly helps that the Bears did enough around Williams on defense and special teams to escape with the win.

Colleen Kane: Williams will have such clunkers in his rookie season. We knew this. The Bears knew this.

And they have been open about the challenges Williams will face during what they hope is an ascent to becoming their franchise quarterback. It’s why general manager Ryan Poles has stressed more than once that he wants Williams to lean on the veteran talent around him as he grows.

This performance was learning experience No. 1 in what is sure to be a string of them during his early NFL development. As Williams said after the game, he had miscues and misfires, including overthrowing receivers and taking two sacks for a loss of 29 yards.

But there were a few positives. Williams didn’t commit a turnover. (If he had, that might have changed the outcome.) Multiple players and coach Matt Eberflus said Williams navigated the rough outing with poise. And he handled the postgame aftermath with maturity, too, acknowledging his mistakes and vowing to be better.

Because the defense and special teams carried the Bears to the win, it gives Williams and the offense a chance to work on correcting those mistakes with a much more positive vibe around Chicago this week. And that’s a win for everyone.

True or false: The offensive showing left a lot of questions

Kane: True. We went into this game with a lot of unknowns about the retooled offense under new coordinator Shane Waldron, and what we found was a lot more problems than just Williams.

The interior of the offensive line had issues against the tough Titans defensive tackles as the Bears relied on new center Coleman Shelton and rotated Ryan Bates and Nate Davis at right guard. Eberflus said after the game the rotation was due to recent injuries for Bates and Davis, but I’d think the Bears want to have the line settled soon.

One of Poles’ big offseason signings was running back D’Andre Swift, but the running game was not very effective against the Titans. Swift had 10 carries for 30 yards, though he did have one highlight-reel 20-yard run that included hurdling a defender. Khalil Herbert may have some flaws in his game, but seeing him get on the field for only six snaps — totaling two carries for 4 yards — was a little surprising to me given that Roschon Johnson was inactive.

I also found myself asking where Cole Kmet was, even if the Bears brought in tight end Gerald Everett in the offseason. That’s not a knock on Kmet, who had 73 catches for 719 yards in 2023. He was on the field for 48% of the offensive snaps, making a catch on his only target for 4 yards.

It’s early, and Waldron and the offensive coaches also are working out kinks. But we need to see a lot more from the offense beyond Williams.

Wiederer: I typically like to afford new coordinators the month of September to iron out wrinkles within an offense, whether that’s the play-calling flow or the preferred personnel groupings or the way the ball is distributed. But I will admit some things Sunday raised an eyebrow.

In the second quarter, for example, Williams missed a third-down deep shot to DeAndre Carter. But more concerning was on that play, out of an empty-backfield set, the Bears had Carter, Everett and Travis Homer split out to the left with Swift, Kmet and DJ Moore on the sideline. On third-and-4. Even before the snap, that felt awkward.

I also scratched my head late in the game when the Bears — with a seven-point lead — called a bubble screen to Velus Jones Jr., who has proved to be one of the least reliable players on the team in terms of ball security. The risk-reward calculus there felt iffy.

This team, with this level of talent, should be at a different stage than that. Now we’ll see where things go Sunday night in Houston. And that includes heightened scrutiny of the interior of the offensive line.

True or false: The defense made a strong statement

Wiederer: True. This was everything Eberflus’ defense talked about being all offseason. Especially after halftime. This was a unit that showed it could take over a game and create a surge of energy that keeps building.

In the second half, the Bears defense was on the field for seven possessions and posted a shutout, allowing only 65 total yards and four first downs while creating three turnovers. Those were three big, big takeaways, none more important than Tyrique Stevenson’s game-winning pick-six midway through the fourth quarter.

Stevenson’s 43-yard touchdown return came after DeMarcus Walker corralled Titans quarterback Will Levis and forced him into an inane throw.

“I bet he regrets that now,” Walker said with a smile after the game. “Just take the sack, son.”

The Bears defense was swarming in the second half, limiting Tennessee to 2.2 yards per play. The Bears also got a forced fumble from newcomer Darrell Taylor — which was recovered by T.J. Edwards — plus a victory-sealing interception from Jaylon Johnson.

Perhaps best of all, the defense played with poise and steadiness even after the Bears fell behind by 17 points. So, yeah. Wow. That was a statement.

Kane: I have to be honest, all training camp I was pulling back on the narrative that the Bears wanted to be a top-five defense — just because we hear such talk every August, and it doesn’t always materialize. But, man, the Bears defense looked good Sunday, even if it wasn’t against an elite quarterback.

Most promising to me was the defensive line, which came into the season with the most questions.

In the back seven, Edwards was all over the place making plays. But I expected that after I saw what he did last season. I expected Johnson to carry his impressive camp play into the regular season. I knew Jaquan Brisker could make flashy plays.

But I wasn’t sure what the Bears would get from their defensive linemen beyond Montez Sweat.

Taylor and Walker — two of the biggest talkers on the defense, we’ve been told — showed up in a big way. Taylor had two sacks, including the strip-sack, and eight tackles. Walker had four quarterback hits. Tackles Andrew Billings and Gervon Dexter also made some big plays. That should get Bears fans really excited.