Caleb Williams Picks and Chooses His Way to Well-Orchestrated Win

The passing numbers for the Bears quarterback weren't spectacular but were effective when they needed to be as he engineered four scoring drives without an interception.

Caleb Williams comes away all smiles and with a game ball after directing four scoring drives in a 24-18 win over the Rams. / Matt Marton-Imagn Images

The process of educating a quarterback continues for the Bears, and the home field often can be a friendly place to learn.

At least it's friendlier than trying to learn in Indianpolis or Houston in front of an unfriendly crowd.

Caleb Williams produced a mistake-free game with the exception of an overthrow or two and advanced as a quarterback who could read situations and react during Sunday's 24-18 win over the Rams.

Of this there was no doubt.

"He was better because I thought he looked down the field for the shots," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said about Willims. "When we weren't there, he took the check-downs, and we got a lot of yards on those. I think that was better for him.

"Again, he's going to keep improving every single week. But I do think that for him, the operation of the ball, honoring the football and taking care of the football is the No. 1 job of the quarterback, and he did an excellent job of that today."

The other thing Williams did well was follow directions put down at halftime because he led two long touchdown drives in the second half, one ending in his 9-yard TD throw to DJ Moore at the back of the end zone and the other concluding with the key points in the game on D'Andre Swift's 36-yard TD run one play after Cole Kmet caught a throw on a seam route for 22 yards.

BEARS PIECE TOGETHER WIN OVER RAMS

The TD pass he threw to Moore was pure read. Williams saw the Rams defense trying to cover his best receiver with a linebacker.

"Actually, I saw the safety running over there," Williams said. "I think there was a bit of confusion on the defensive side. There was a safety over top of Gerald (Everett) on the left side. Rome (Odunze) took inside release. The backer, I think it was the one over Gerald covered him pretty well. Then I knew that they weren't going double (team on) DJ with the safety running over. They were going to leave a backer on DJ.

"So when you leave a backer on DJ, that's the match-up that you want and that you wish for throughout games and so that's how it happened."

Part of read-and-react for Williams on this day was hitting the check-down throws and this was how Swift got the bulk of his team-high seven receptions.

"We always talk about how big check-downs are, especially on third downs," Williams said. "Whether it's third down and long, third down and short or medium. Being able to steal a third down is kind of what we call it, whether you're running, as a run or a as scramble or whatever.

"Things like that are fun to check down and stealing it that way. I think we did well with that as a group. See two, split two when you catch it, and the guys did a great job."

Doing this is part of the reason he finished with seven first-down passes after he had only two in the first half, and whe Bears finished 3-for-5 in the second half on third-down conversions after going 0-for-4 in the first half when they led 10-6.

'If you want to call him a game manager, so be it, although he was more like a game player considering how he made the right reads and hit on the important passes. That's actually what an NFL quarterback needs to do rather than run it for 20 yards.

It's easy to make the argument Williams has learned and improved with each successive week, after his 93-yard effort in the opener. He didn't force anything Sunday, took what he could and emerged the mistake-free winner.

He even made some wise choices in the second quarter when they scored on Roschon Johnson's 1-yard TD run after Montez Sweat's strip-sack resulted in a Kyler Gordon recovery at the Rams 16. On third down, rather than make a risky throw into coverage, he threw in a place where it couldn't be intercepted for an incompletion. Then he benefited from a pass interference penalty call on the play for first-and-goal at the 1.

"Overall, I'm getting more comfortable," Williams said. "I've said recently, in about two, three months, I'd have been a year out of football, which is crazy to think about, since my last game (in 2023) was November 18, before the season.

"I think just getting more in the flow of football, the rhythm throughout the season, the rhythm of the week, just getting more comfortable and being more consistent with myself throughout the week, I think, is kind of what I'm feeling.

"Then us just building, us communicating, like I said before. Building on the things, whether it's good or bad. I think we're doing that well."

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