Simple reminders helped Caleb Williams get his confidence back and put pocket concerns behind him despite loss vs. Packers
The Chicago Bears dropped a fourth consecutive game in heart-breaking fashion in Week 11 but things certainly felt different this time around.The 20-19 loss to the Green Bay Packers stings for sure but Sunday's game was a night and day difference compared to the previous three Bears' losses.A big reason why is because of the […]
The Chicago Bears dropped a fourth consecutive game in heart-breaking fashion in Week 11 but things certainly felt different this time around.
The 20-19 loss to the Green Bay Packers stings for sure but Sunday's game was a night and day difference compared to the previous three Bears' losses.
A big reason why is because of the coaching change made in Chicago this week that helped inspire confidence in the offense and most importantly in rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.
Williams looked much more comfortable and confident in his first game under new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown against the Packers.
The unit largely played a clean game and Williams cleaned up a lot of the unnecessary mistakes that plagued the unit for weeks. And one part of his game in particular nearly resulted in a upset against the Packers.
As Steven Ruiz of The Ringer pointed out earlier this week, Williams' 6.35 seconds before scramble easily was the most among qualified quarterbacks entering Week 11. Before this week, Williams also had the third-most allowed sacks and a big reason why is because he was waiting too long for something to open up.
Against the Packers, things finally clicked for Williams and he was able to use his legs as a weapon on scrambles when the rest of the play wasn't there and also on multiple designed runs. By the time it was all said and done, Williams finished the game with 9 carries for 70 yards with only 3 sacks (two on the final drive of the game).
That's one of the things new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown was looking to implement back into the Bears' offense. During his introductory press conference as the new coordinator and play-caller, Brown mentioned letting Williams "use his natural God-given ability when it's relevant." That's certainly what Williams did today.
The other simple adjustment and reminder Brown gave to Williams and the offense was designing plays to get the ball quickly out of Williams' hand and into the hands of his play-makers in the passing game.
During the first-half of Sunday's game, Williams averaged 1.92 seconds on his time to throw, the quickest time to throw of any quarterback in a game this season, via Next Gen Stats. He also was throwing shorter passes with 79 of his 85 first-half passing yards coming after the catch.
As for getting it to his primary weapons, DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen, and Cole Kmet all finished the game with 40+ receiving yards. Not to mention D'Andre Swift rushing for 71 yards and a touchdown and Roschon Johnson reaching the end zone as well.
Everything felt balanced for the Bears' offense on Sunday and it's a sign of good things to come for the unit with Brown now calling the plays. Hopefully it won't be too late.
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Another page to the league’s oldest rivalry.
