Bears HC Ben Johnson provides injury update on QB Caleb Williams that doesn’t make things any less concerning for this offense
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson spoke with reporters after the Week 2 loss and provided a brief update on injured quarterback Caleb Williams.
The Chicago Bears were faced with a nightmare scenario when starting quarterback Caleb Williams went down without contact after a run late in the fourth quarter and went back to the locker room on the dreaded cart.
Williams was visibly in pain and frustration after the play and things turned sour for the Bears, who went on to lose the game 3-9 against the Minnesota Vikings. After the loss, head coach Ben Johnson provided some updates on Williams’ injury.
“We’ll know more tomorrow (Monday),” Johnson said when initially asked about Williams’ injury. “I just saw him a second ago, he’s in good spirits.”
When Williams was officially ruled out by the team, Williams was listed as having a hamstring injury, which is good news compared to it potentially being a knee or ankle injury. However, the severity of his injury is still unknown and will be until further tests are done and announced on Monday.
“I’m happy it’s nothing with the knee,” Johnson added. “That was my first inclination. But, the hamstring could be pretty damaging as well. So, we’ll see how bad it is tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
For what it’s worth, Patrick Norton of CHGO Bears reported that Williams walked out of the locker room on his own without a noticeable limp. ESPN’s Adam Schefter added that Williams will undergo further imaging on his hamstring Monday.
Caleb Williams’ injury is just one of the many offensive concerns from Sunday’s game
Even before Williams left the game, Chicago’s offense looked like a shell of the unit that scored 59 points the week prior. The Bears finished the game with just three points and couldn’t get anything going on offense, outside of some strong plays by running backs D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai.
The most frustrating part was the team having self-inflicted errors with eight total penalties for 58 yards, which made things even harder for the unit going up against Brian Flores’ scheme along with the terrible weather conditions at Soldier Field.
“We practiced a lot of this stuff throughout the week and we didn’t run into those issues,” Johnson explained. “We’ll take a look at what it was that was a little bit off and we’ll get it cleaned up.”
The only drives Chicago’s offense mustered any momentum was the opening drive coming out of the half that ended with a fumble by Swift on the goal line and the drive that Williams was injured on that ended with a blocked field goal.
“We gotta make sure we capitalize on every opportunity we get when we face a good defense like that,” Johnson said.
Coming out of Week 1, the Bears were riding high as the top offense in football. Coming out of Week 2, this unit has some major chinks in the armor and now a major situation to watch next week involving the health of their promising young quarterback.
