Caleb Williams breaks down his preseason debut vs. Bengals and explains what went wrong during his lone drive
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams got one drive of action in Saturday’s preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, a drive that ended with three straight incompletions.
The Chicago Bears did not have the best performance in Saturday’s preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals and there’s plenty that head coach Ben Johnson won’t be happy about after he watches the tape back from this game.
The Bears did play the majority of the starters on both sides of the ball, including quarterback Caleb Williams, who played a total of nine snaps in one drive of action. After the game, Johnson explained the decision to have Williams suit up on Saturday.
“We were going to assess the number of reps over the course of the week and workload,” Johnson told reporters. “We felt like we needed this work.”
Williams got plenty of work during Thursday’s joint practice, but the overall performance left a lot to be desired from the starting offense when it came to pre-snap issues and missed opportunities post-snap. I have no issue with Johnson’s decision, so let’s break down what we actually saw from Williams and the starting offense.
Breaking down Caleb Williams’ preseason drive against the Cincinnati Bengals
Let’s first start with who wasn’t out there, which included left guard Joe Thuney, running back D’Andre Swift, wide receiver Luther Burden III, and wide receiver Zavion Thomas. Every other offensive starter was out there for Saturday’s game.
Williams’ first pass attempt of the game was a nice on-the-move completion to wide receiver Rome Odunze, who turned it into 18 yards. His next completion went to tight end Colston Loveland on a quick read, who turned that into 10 yards. The drive was flowing well and mixed in some good runs by running back Roschon Johnson.
The Bears got to the Bengals’ 17-yard-line after that completion to Loveland before a holding by left tackle Braxton Jones backed the unit up into a first-and-20 situation. Williams attempted to get the yards back by attempting a chunk play after the penalty targeting Loveland up the seam.
“If we get a penalty, it’s my job and the other guys’ jobs to try and get us back in position,” Williams explained. “To try and help Ben out in that situation. It’s not many calls that you can have for second-and-20’s or third-and-20’s.”
After the game, Johnson noted that he would have liked to see Williams target a different read on that throw to Loveland. Obviously, the two haven’t looked over the play yet together but Williams explained his reasoning behind going to Loveland on that play.
“They ended up busting the coverage,” Williams said. “Just saw Colston running down the seam. That’s not typically our read on that play when they get into that coverage. They ended up messing up on defense, tried to find the open guy, and just missed.”
On the next play, the defense deflected Williams’ pass at the line of scrimmage, forcing the offense into a tough third-and-20 situation. Williams tried to complete the ball to Odunze on third-down, but something seemed off on the play, besides a potential missed holding call on Odunze. Williams explained why it went wrong.
“Communication was good. They ended up sending a blitz on the left side and so the back had to stay in protection,” Williams said. “That backer that was guarding [the running back] ended up just following my eyes. Mid-throw, I ended up seeing him, so I just hooked it to basically throw an incompletion on purpose (instead of an interception).”
Overall outlook and expectations for the final week of preseason
Overall, I wasn’t too discouraged from Williams’ performance on Saturday, both in the moment and after listening to him explain what went wrong when that opening drive stalled. It was limited action and it’ll be good tape to look back on.
As for next week, the Bears have another joint practice scheduled against the Tennessee Titans ahead of the final preseason game. Johnson said the plan will remain the same with results of the joint practice driving the decision on whether or not Williams will play.
If this is the last we see of Williams in the preseason, that means the joint practice went well for him and the starting offense and we’ll be on to Week 1. We’ll see how it goes this upcoming week.
