Bear Digest

Caleb Williams' Idea of Hail Mary Prevention: Score Early for Once

The Bears offense goes into a game with Arizona with 10 first-quarter points and Caleb Williams notes they might have made the Hail Mary Sunday a moot point by scoring early.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears QB Caleb Williams throws as Washington linebackers Frankie Luvu and Bobby Wagner defend in Sunday's 18-15 loss.
Bears QB Caleb Williams throws as Washington linebackers Frankie Luvu and Bobby Wagner defend in Sunday's 18-15 loss. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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The way Caleb Williams views it, the Hail Mary debacle Sunday was partly his fault and that of the offense.

"There's a sense of, obviously right in that moment, you're angry," Williams said Wednesday. "You're furious that you just lost and you lost that way. It's a tough way to lose.

"Like I spoke about before, there's obviously a sense of accountability that I have to take."

It's the old, "if we did our job we wouldn't have been in that situation."

And, as usual, the job they didn't do was score early. In fact, in this one they didn't score enough, period, but the early going was especially rough because they went scoreless for an entire first half for the first time. They punted six of their first seven possessions and the one time they didn't punt they failed in their own territory with a wide receiver screen to DJ Moore on fourth-and-1.

"First half, I didn't play necessarily the way I wanted to," Williams said, in assessing his play in the game against Washington. "The ability to snap and start getting things going late in the game being down that much and having so many negative drives or stalled drives and things like that is a positive.

"We have to start fast. We have to figure out ways to do that. We have to figure out ways to maintain and keep that going throughout four quarters or however many plays, drives you need to be able to win games."

Completing only 10 passes for 131 yards on 124 attempts while taking three sacks was nothing like the effort Williams had in his previous three games. He only targeted Cole Kmet once, the same number as fourth wide receiver DeAndre Carter, or one more than he threw to running back D'Andre Swift.

Swift made it possible for them to rally with his 129-yard rushing day, including the 56-yard third-quarter TD run. But his breakaway speed could have been put in use catching passes under the coverage or to beat the blitz and they didn't do it.

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Still, the worst aspect of the offensive showing by far was their slow start. It's the sixth one in seven games. Even the one time they did have a decent start in the first quarter, they stumbled immediately and then got rolling after the traditional wasted first possession.

"First half, I didn't play necessarily the way I wanted to," Williams said. "The ability to snap and start getting things going late in the game being down that much and having so many negative drives or stalled drives and things like that is a positive.

"We have to start fast. We have to figure out ways to do that. We have to figure out ways to maintain and keep that going throughout four quarters or however many plays, drives you need to be able to win games."

Not only do they have only 10 points scored in first quarters, they have only converted 3 of 18 third downs in first quarters. They have had five three-and-outs. Amazingly, their 1.4-point average for first quarters is not the league's worst. It's next to last. The Eagles haven't scored in a first quarter yet.

"I mean you can focus on it all you want and it's been a focus for us, but at the end of the day it just comes down to executing these plays," tight end Cole Kmet said. "It's really plain and simple as that and we didn't execute early in the game.

"We gotta be better on our execution and trust our rules—maybe you get a funky look here and there, but you've got to trust the rules within the scheme and within the play and just go out and execute and play it fast. Look, there’s gonna be times where they get you defensively with a look and we dont get the exact look you want for a play you have up. But there'll be answers on plays. Or there'll be an ability to get the 2-yard gain and get to that second-and-8 and just live to fight another down. I think it's just minimizing those type of mistakes there and it just comes down to execution and that’s just gotta be the focus going forward."

For all of their failures early, Williams did point out they delivered the drive they needed at the end on offense.

"That's a big part of me," Williams said. "I'm a big part of the leaders. I'm a big part of us and our next step, because we need games like that.

"There's gonna be games like that when we have to be able to pull it out at the end."

They just need to make it so they don't need to pull it out at the end by scoring early, and then don't give it away after they do score late.

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.