Caleb Williams Catches Fire After Slow Start in 27-3 Bears Victory

Two deep passes and his own 7-yard TD run in the second quarter helped the rookie Bears QB start the team on the way to a second straight preseason rout.

Caleb Williams beats the pass rush pressure with a throw during the first half of Saturday's 27-3 Bears win over the Bengals. / Daniel Bartel-USA TODAY Sports

It took a while but Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and teammates ultimately made sitting through the rain worthwhile for Soldier Field fans.

Williams completed a 45-yard pass on the run to Rome Odunze, ran in a touchdown himself from 7 yards out and started the Bears on the way to a 27-3 preseason win Saturday over the Cincinnati Bengals reserves.

"We weren't our best today," Williams said. "We started out slow and we can't do that in this National Football League. We can't come out here and start slow, myself included.

"We're going to be a lot better. We're going to keep growing. We're going to have a lot of fun doing it."

Williams played a half and completed 6 of 13 for 75  yards. Tyson Bagent completed 7 of 8 for 87 yards and two TDs and Brett Rypien 3 of 4 for 53 yards, but Williams got it all going toward a second straight Bears preseason rout.

He started making an impact in the second quarter after Amen Ogbongbemiga intercepted a Logan Woodside pass when the Bengals third-team QB had been hit while throwing by blitzing slot cornerback Kyler Gordon.

"That changed the game," Gordon said. "You put a little more pressure on him, he's getting hit, he don't want to get hit no more. And so he's going to start looking around and being a little more aware of that. Any time you get a chance to disrupt a QB and his play it makes it big."

It became bigger after an end-around by Odunze accounted for 16 yards and then a 43-yard pass interference penalty on Cincinnati's Josh Newton when he grabbed Bears receiver Tyler Scott from behind on a deep ball, setting up a 37-yard Cairo Santos field goal for the game's first points.

Then the rookie connection took over the game. Williams found no one open, wheeled out of the pocket to his left and hit Odunze running free behind the defense for a 45-yard gain to the 7.

"Man he's throwing off of one leg, putting it on my outside shoulder," Odunze said. "It's like, oooh! It's magical what he’s doing back there in that backfield. He's special."

Williams scrambled in from the 7 after a pair of incompletions, again spinning out of the pocket to his left but then going straight into the end zone.

The improvisation and passing, like on the deep ball to Odunze, will continue Williams says.

"It's something that I've worked on in practice," Williams said about throwing on the run to his left. "Watching Aaron Rodgers, just he's a Green Bay guy and all that, just watching Aaron Rodgers and all his time these past 19-20 years,  I mean, he can do unbelievable things, running right, left running straight. All of these other things.

"So just practicing it over time, perfecting it. Obviously there's going to be times where I don't put it exactly where I want to but today it worked out. Rome ran a great route. I remember Rome had a good exit plan from his route and got upfield and then made a marvelous catch, a wonderful catch." 

This angle of Caleb Williams’ DIME to Rome Odunze 🤯
pic.twitter.com/eyN0J8Zi5e

— PFF (@PFF) August 17, 2024

The defense came up with three takeaways total, an interception by Terell Smith to set up a second-half 4-yard TD pass by Tyson Bagent to Dante Pettis and a fumble recovery by Keith Randolph Jr. set up a 51-yard Santos field goal.

"That's big. That's what we do," coach Matt Eberflus said. "We like to stop the run and take the ball away, you know, set short fields for our offense, just try to play complementary football.

"We're just trying to get those distances that we like."

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