Beating up bad defenses isn’t impressive, but it’s a necessity.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams cooked the 27th-ranked Cowboys defense last week and will look to do the same Sunday against the NFL’s No. 21 defense when he visits the Raiders. Would it be more convincing if he put up big numbers against the top-ranked Packers? Of course, but that’ll have to wait.
For now, Williams must establish an expectation that he’s going to regularly take advantage of struggling defenses. It’s a small step, but a mile marker for young quarterbacks nonetheless.
Games like this give Williams a chance to solidify foundational elements of his game and set a baseline going forward. When the schedule gets tougher, such as the game at the Commanders next month coming out of the bye week, those things will translate.
He completed 19 of 28 passes for 298 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions for a 142.6 passer rating against the Cowboys, which won him NFC Offensive Player of the Week on Wednesday. Going forward, the focus is less on hitting those gaudy stats again and more on being disciplined about everything he did right to get them.
“That’s the most important thing,” Williams said Wednesday after practice. “Just being able to do the right things at the right time consistently helps the team.”
Bears coach Ben Johnson said the film of Williams’ game against the Cowboys showed a quarterback who had advanced substantially from the spring and training camp in terms of footwork and going through his progressions downfield.
The hope is that some of the key skills he has nailed down will stay that way rather than revert. The way Williams played against the Cowboys — not the numbers, but the overall competency — can’t be an outlier for him. It has to become his standard.
Williams’ rewatch showed better footwork and him moving quicker and more confidently through getting the play call, giving it in the huddle and getting the team lined up early in the play clock to give himself a chance to size up the defense. After six false starts and an illegal shift over the first two games, the Bears had no pre-snap penalties in their 31-14 win over the Cowboys.
All of that has been especially gratifying for Johnson because it’s the manifestation of fundamentals he’s been drilling into Williams for months.
“He’s been receptive to it all,” Johnson said. “I can’t say enough, really, about the approach. When you have the approach that’s right, we’re going to continue to see him get better.”
The emphasis on process over results comes across as a change in tone from the Bears, who last year seemed to be celebrating a triumphant season before it even started. To that point, when Johnson shouted out Williams for winning the award at a team meeting Wednesday, he brushed it aside.
“He wasn’t having it,” Johnson said. “Very stoic. He’s already on to the next game. He knows he needs to have an even better performance here this week to give us the best chance to win.”
Williams’ only comment on winning the award: “Cool.”
It’s been nearly two years since a Bear won it (wide receiver DJ Moore) and three since a Bears quarterback did it (former quarterback Justin Fields). Given how bad the team has been on offense, and specifically at quarterback, for years, it’s a pretty big deal at Halas Hall.
“He wants to be better than Player of the Week,” Moore said.
Williams had a lot more to say about the Bears’ walk-through Wednesday morning and his plans to further study the game plan once he finished his day at the facility. Ever since the new coaching staff arrived, along with 14-year veteran backup quarterback Case Keenum, Williams has seemed to have a better grasp and put more value on those parts of his job.
“We just had a walk-through and we screwed some things up, and that’s because we just talked about it for the first time and we’re going to screw a couple things up in a walk-through,” Johnson said. “What I’m most impressed by with him is the next day, he really locks everything in from the day before. We don’t have to go back and revisit it.
“He’s a quick study in that regard and because of that, we can load up the game plan more each week. In Week 3, it was a lot more than Week 1. Hopefully that’s our new normal here going forward. Because his comfort level is growing, we’re able to grow as an offense.”
The Raiders have one of the league’s elite pass rushers in four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby, but that’s about it defensively. They’re fresh off allowing 41 points in a blowout loss to the Commanders.
They’ve allowed a 100.7 passer rating, a 68.1 completion percentage and have just one interception. And even with Crosby having two sacks in the first three games, they’ve pressured opposing quarterbacks on just 17.6% of their drop-backs, which ranks 25th.
If Williams truly is on the rise, he should be able to capitalize on that. Then it’ll be on to the next mile marker.
Want more insights? Join Working Title - our career elevating newsletter and get the future of work delivered weekly.
