The Bears have been here before with young quarterbacks. In fact, they’ve been here before with this exact young quarterback.
While Caleb Williams’ excellent performance Sunday in the 31-14 win over the Cowboys was encouraging, the next step is to play like that consistently and replicate the finer points of the position against better defenses than that one.
The Cowboys’ defense clearly is one of the NFL’s worst and has now allowed 30.7 points per game. For a snapshot of how bad it is, look at Giants quarterback Russell Wilson, who lit up the Cowboys a monster game in Week 2, then sputtered to 160 yards, two interceptions and a 43.7 passer rating against the Chiefs on Sunday.
Williams had supposed breakout games as a rookie last season, only to fall flat later. He had a three-game stretch against the Rams, Colts and Jaguars in which he put up a 122.8 passer rating, then posted an 87.3 the rest of the season.
Before Williams, hope surged when Mitch Trubisky had that six-touchdown game in 2018 and when Justin Fields threw four touchdown passes in back-to-back games in 2023, and those stories ended disappointingly for the Bears.
Any quarterback can put up a big game occasionally. The great ones do it consistently.
Williams completed 19 of 28 passes against the Cowboys for 298 yards (fifth-best total of his career and best yards per pass at 10.6), four touchdowns (best) and a 142.6 passer rating (best). But the statistics themselves, as illustrated with Trubisky and Fields, don’t inherently translate going forward and against stronger defenses.
The subtleties might, though. There are some key nuances of Williams’ game that must continue when the Bears visit the Raiders on Sunday.
The Raiders, by the way, are 22nd in points allowed (24.7 per game), 23rd in opponent passer rating (100.7) and 25th in opponent completion percentage (68.1).
If Williams keeps doing the little things right that he did against the Cowboys, numbers will follow.
When Bears coach Ben Johnson fawned over Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott last week, specifically about his ability to use his eyes to confuse the defense rather than telegraph his passes by locking in on a receiver too early, it sure sounded like he was sending Williams a message.
“I don’t use the media a whole lot to talk indirectly to the players; I talk to Caleb directly,” Johnson said Monday, then acknowledged that, “it is something that we’ve talked about.”
Perhaps unintentionally, then, but the point stands. Prescott doesn’t give away his intentions before letting the ball fly, and that’s one difference between a 32-year-old franchise quarterback and a 23-year-old trying to become one.
Williams did it well a few times Sunday, including when he scrambled to the right on the third-quarter touchdown pass to DJ Moore on fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line. He looked to D’Andre Swift in the right corner, baiting three defenders into taking a step toward Swift, then threw across his body to Moore alone in the back of the end zone.
It worked even more emphatically on a 41-yard dump-off to Swift in the second quarter. As Swift released from his block to the left, Williams was scanning the right side of the field, then turned left and instantly threw to Swift. When Swift caught the ball outside the numbers to the left, the entire Cowboys defense was in the middle or right side of the field.
Even if Swift hadn’t broken any tackles, it would’ve been at least an 11-yard gain solely off the play design and savvy execution by Williams.
Plays like those are where Williams can grow from talented to proficient. Literally every quarterback who gets drafted is gifted. The ones who flourish are able to outthink their competition and process everything more quickly and accurately.
That’s true of Williams’ mechanics, too. While he has what Johnson calls a “beautiful” throwing motion and an uncanny ability to make difficult throws, a quarterback with loose fundamentals simply isn’t viable in the NFL. Williams was superior enough to get away with that at USC, but not here.
That’s why Johnson has been all over his footwork from the beginning and continues to point to it as the key to throwing accuracy. It’s no coincidence that Williams’ highest completion percentage of the season (67.9) came in a game when his footwork routinely was correct.
It was most evident on back-to-back passes in the first quarter. First, Williams hit tight end Colston Loveland up the right side for 31 yards, then found Rome Odunze for a 35-yard touchdown pass up the left side. On both throws, he had both feet pointed squarely at the receiver, and on both, he led the receiver downfield for an in-stride catch.
“In terms of the execution he’s getting a lot better, a lot more comfortable with his footwork,” Johnson said. “He’s got a good system in place right now that he’s adhering to, and it’s showing up on game day where we’re starting to reap some of the rewards from that.”
Add in that the Bears had no pre-snap penalties, Johnson saw a more comfortable, confident control of the huddle and Williams didn’t take any sacks by holding the ball too long, and you have his new weekly checklist.
If Williams can do those things regularly, there’s little doubt he’ll have more big games ahead.
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