Bear Digest

Bears and Caleb Williams Finish Up in London with a Fury

The Bears rookie QB shrugged off an early interception by throwing for four touchdowns and leading a 35-16 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams scurries for a first down on a zone read play to keep alive a Bears drive in a 35-16 win over Jacksonville.
Caleb Williams scurries for a first down on a zone read play to keep alive a Bears drive in a 35-16 win over Jacksonville. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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By the time it ended in London, no one cared about how the Bears offense once again started slowly.

If they're going to finish games this effectively, the first drives and first quarters just don't seem to matter much.

Caleb Williams threw for four touchdown passes and completed 23 of 29 for 226 yards to lead a 35-16 Bears rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Then Williams blamed himself for an early turnover and some of slow start.

"I would say we've got to be better, we've got to start fast, especially when we get the ball first, when teams defer," Williams told reporters in London.

Any mistakes were quickly forgotten after two TD passes to Cole Kmet, who had to double as a long snapper after a knee injury to Scott Daly in the first quarter. Two TDs after that went to Keenan Allen, who put his third-down mastery on display for the first time. And D'Andre Swift rushed for 91 yards in an efficient beatdown of the NFL team London has adopted.

"I think us getting out there and us getting our momentum going, us getting out there and executing and believing in each other is what you credit it to," Williams said.

The Bears fell behind 3-0, the sixth time in six games they trailed first, but they rebounded quickly to win three straight games for the first time ever under coach Matt Eberflus.

"I think we're in a good spot," Eberflus said. "I think we've got a lot of improving to do but for the first six games I think we're in a good spot and we have to get our minds and our bodies right to go on to these next six games starting with the first one (at Washington, Oct. 27).""

The Bears defense limited Jacksonville's one-two running back combination of Tank Bigsby and Travis Etienne to 52 yards total, had four sacks and took the ball away twice, including an interception by Josh Blackwell after he replaced injured Kyler Gordon. 

Williams and the offense paired this with a good dose of complementary football, taking advantage of the two takeaways with TDs.

"That's consistency," Eberflus said. "You make the progress and you want it to be linear but it's not away that way, but we feel that he took a step in the right direction, our football team took a step in the right direction behind Caleb to play complementary football and him being able to distribute the ball and operate."

Williams had at least two completions to six receivers and became the first rookie Bears QB to throw for four TDs since Cade McNown in 1999 against Minnesota. He hit Kmet on a 31-yard TD that essentially was a double-fake screen pass to each side of the field. Having faked, Williams then threw down the middle to Kmet and he powered over two DBs to the end zone for a 7-3 lead 11:07 before halftime.

Williams' only real mistake of the day came on an underthrow of DJ Moore for an interception in scoring position deep in the second quarter, but the defense covered for him and he led a 85-yard, 10-play drive just before halftime to a second Kmet TD pass from 2 yards out just before halftime.

"I was a bit pissed off at myself because that was a pass that you don't miss, that you don't want to miss," Williams said of the interception. "And to do something like that, yeah I was a bit pissed off after that. I think resetting was important but still to have that in the back of my mind, like, can't have that happen again, and let's go out there and go score."

When Elijah Hicks recovered a fumble forced by T.J. Edwards on Jacksonville's first drive of the third quarter, Williams was resilient and took the Bears right back downfield quickly in seven plays to a 9-yard leaping Allen TD catch over the middle. It set off a mock tea-party celebration by Allen with teammates in the end zone, remembering to keep the host British fans in mind.

After Jacksonville closed within 21-10, Williams responded with another drive ending in a 3-yard TD pass to Allen and a 28-10 lead. Swift scored the last TD with 12:29 to play.

The Bears ran for a season-high 152 yards, with Williams using 56 yards in scrambles and option runs to complement his passing.

They converted 5 of 11 on third down and Kmet finished with five catches for 70 yards while Allen had five for 41 yards.

The second straight easy win and third overall in a row will be followed by a week off, and then a Sunday night game at Washington where Williams will get to show whether he has advanced as far as Washington's Jayden Daniels.

Confidence is now high across the board for a 4-2 team.

"I think it just boosted it," wide receiver Rome Odunze told reporters. "I think everybody is on high emotions and feeling the gratitude, especially having this all go down how it all went.

"So going into that bye week it's always good when your mental is good going into a period when you're able to get away from football a little bit and get your body and get your mind right. And so I think that will just continue to boost us going forward."

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.