Ben Johnson made his stance on Caleb Williams and his progression in the offense crystal clear following loss to the Ravens
The Chicago Bears head coach made sure to defend his quarterback after Sunday’s loss.
After the Chicago Bears loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 8, head coach Ben Johnson was extra critical over the continued mistakes made by his offense and rightfully so.
From the outside though, a lot of hate is going toward quarterback Caleb Williams’ direction after seeing the result and the final stats on the box score, but Williams’ play on Sunday was far from the biggest concern coming out of that game looking back on that specific game.
And that’s the same takeaway Johnson shared as well after finally getting the chance to get back to Chicago and go back through the tape on Monday morning.
Ben Johnson defends the play of QB Caleb Williams following Week 8 loss
“I think the thing is, you look at it this particular game, and yeah we didn’t score the points, we didn’t do enough to win, the stat line no touchdowns to one interception, he played better this game than I think he had the previous two,” Johnson said of Williams during his interview with Jeff Joniak on ESPN Chicago. “I’m not saying it’s perfect. But, I actually came away from watching the tape this morning encouraged that we took a step in the right direction this week.”
Williams had two main coaching points going into Week 8. Johnson wanted to see more completions from his quarterback and better decision making when asked to abandon the pocket. Williams finished the game 25/38 passing (his second-highest completion percentage of the season) and made some nice out of structure plays.
“I saw tangible growth from him,” Johnson added. “He’s working his (explicative) off. He is, it’s the truth. He’s working his tail off. I think this things going to continue to slow down for him. I think it did to a degree in this game. He did have a couple of mistakes that we’ll learn from. But, I came away more encouraged watching the tape than maybe I felt coming off the field yesterday.”
The biggest mistake came on Williams’ interception early in the fourth quarter backed up in his own end zone that quickly turned into a 7-point swing for Baltimore. Williams forced the ball in a tight window on second down to his top target in Rome Odunze and frankly it was a bad decision. Williams also had two intentional grounding penalties that set the offense back earlier in the game.
“More situational awareness,” Johnson added when asked what Williams specifically can learn. “… All in all, I think he did a pretty good job of giving us a chance throughout. When you’re down by multiple scores, and your running game’s not clicking like it had, you rely a little more on that passing game. It was better than the previous week, but it still wasn’t quite where it needed to be.”
That message is far different from the reactions fans had after the game, once again, calling for Williams to be benched and placing all the blame on his shoulders. It wasn’t perfect, but the learning moments are clear. And fans need to realize Johnson is committed to seeing this thing through when it comes to Williams’ development week-to-week as his quarterback.
Chicago Bears News
Ben Johnson doubles down on the accountability message he’s sending to the players in the locker room following Week 8 loss
The Chicago Bears head coach is putting it on the players to do better.
