The Bears are playing a dangerous game with Caleb Williams and it's becoming yet another major problem with no excuses
The Chicago Bears are starting to play a dangerous game with rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and it's turning into a coaching malpractice.On Sunday against the New England Patriots, the Bears had another embarrassing double-digit loss in which the offense was heavily outplayed by a defense that was underperforming entering that game.A lot of it was […]
The Chicago Bears are starting to play a dangerous game with rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and it's turning into a coaching malpractice.
On Sunday against the New England Patriots, the Bears had another embarrassing double-digit loss in which the offense was heavily outplayed by a defense that was underperforming entering that game.
A lot of it was on the Bears more than the players on the other side of the ball.
The most concerning part is that in the last two games against the Arizona Cardinals and the Patriots, rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has been sacked 15 times and hit a total of 25 times.
On Sunday, Williams was sacked nine different times throughout the game. It was the first game since the 2021 season in which the team allowed that many sacks on offense, and it was one sack shy of the franchise record, per Kevin Fishbain.
Obviously, that's not a successful offensive game plan for any team. But, for the Bears, it's become a common occurrence regardless of who's at quarterback or blocking on the offensive line.
Fishbain added that the Bears have allowed 6+ sacks seven times under head coach Matt Eberflus. The team allowed that to happen just three times under the previous three head coach tenures combined.
It's hard to fully put that stat on Eberflus but it's certainly an eye-opening stat that speaks volumes. And it's something that looks even worse now with a rookie first overall pick under center.
After the loss on Sunday, Eberflus was asked about the number of hits Williams has taken this season and considered it to be nothing more than another step in his development as an NFL quarterback.
"I think everything's developing. Everything's developing," Eberflus said about Williams. "He's a young quarterback, he's only played so many games in the NFL. And again, every experience is different, and he's got to learn from that experience and exposure. It's a developing thing, it's never going to be like this all the way through."
Eberflus says it's never going to be like this all the way through, yet Williams continues to get hit more and more each game, and the coaches aren't doing him any favors.
In each of the last two losses, the Bears were down multiple possessions yet left Williams on the field until the clocks hit zero. On the final drive over the last two games, Williams was sacked or hit four times despite being down 16 or more points.
Doing so once again against the Patriots on Sunday looked even worse for the coaching staff. Williams was being protected by third-string offensive linemen at some positions and had backup tackles on both ends of the offensive line all game.
Keeping Williams on the field to take the hits he was taking was unacceptable. You'd think after Williams was nearly injured the week before on the meaningless final drive that something would change, but it didn't.
The Bears' coaching staff is failing their franchise quarterback in more ways than one and it's only a matter of time until something critical happens if this continues.
‘We’re looking at everything’ – Bears HC Matt Eberflus addresses the potential of altering the offensive coaching staff
We’ll see if a decision gets made.
