Bear Digest

Caleb Williams Trying to Make Bears Passing Game Viking-Proof

After achieving success last week in a loss, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams expects to see plenty of blitzing from Brian Flores' Vikings defense and has a plan.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams fires against Green Bay's defense in the second half of Sunday's 20-19 Bears loss.
Caleb Williams fires against Green Bay's defense in the second half of Sunday's 20-19 Bears loss. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Matt Eberflus thinks the Bears are set up well to attack the blitzes of Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores because of one perceived Caleb Williams strength.

“It starts with his natural ability, his natural ability is to get the ball out fast,” Eberflus said. “Some players don’t have that ability, right? They take it (the snap). Their release is slow. But his is very fast.

“I think it helps him. The recognition, the way we set it up on offense I think will help him also. And it’s just identifying it before the snap, but also it’s natural ability to get the ball out.”

Williams better be able to deliver the ball quickly because the Vikings are blitzing a league-high 37.7% of the time, according to Stathead and Pro Football Reference.

“I think obviously, you know, he’s going to blitz you,” Williams said of Flores, the former Dolphins head coach. “He’s the king of cover-zero blitz and finding a bunch of different ways to do it.”

The Bears scored 19 points against Green Bay in Thomas Brown’s debut as offensive coordinator after failing to score a touchdown in 25 straight possessions with Shane Waldron as coordinator. They have to build on what they put down on film last week and it’s not going to be easy against such an aggressive defense.

“Again, I think you have to adjust and change every week offensively,” Eberflus said. “Now, your concepts don’t change. The core runs that you have, and again you’ll sprinkle in some things that are new in terms of that, but the concepts are going to be the same.

“But it’s about getting guys in space. It’s about getting the athletes the ball and have them do their thing. It’s about throwing the ball downfield when you have the opportunity to do that, spreading the defense horizontally and vertically. I think that’s very important. And staying committed to the run game, like we did. I think that’s an important piece to it. This team’s No. 1 in the league in creating (tackles for loss) and second-and-longs, so our first-down efficiency is going to have to be really good to keep us ahead of it during the course of the game.”

No doubt the short passes will be critical facing the Vikings blitz, but the deep passes are where their offense really needs to make strides.

“We gotta work on that,” wide receiver DJ Moore said. “Hopefully it comes together this week and we go from there.”

The Bears are next to last in the NFL in net yards per pass attempt at 4.7 yards. This includes their sacks and yards lost.

Overall, Williams is at an extremely low 6.2 yards per pass attempt.

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Both Moore (9.8) and Keenan Allen (9.4) are below 10 yards a reception.

However, there is more than one way to pick up big chunks of yardage in the passing game against the blitz, particularly for a QB who is quick getting rid of the ball. That’s through yards after the catch.

Williams ranks 14th among NFL passers at achieving YAC at 1,024 yards.

The effort against Green Bay portends well for Williams in that he was facing a highly ranked unit, after he did achieve most of his earlier success against weaker defenses.

However, he’s not citing that as a mental barrier broken.

“I wouldn’t say it did anything for me mentally,” Williams said. “I think after the third game, I realized that I can play and I feel good playing. I've said multiple times, regardless of the interceptions at the beginning of the season, I felt like I was seeing the field well, and that still stands today. 

“There’s going to be rough times, rough patches over the long, healthy career that I hopefully have, and that’s not going to change my mindset, nor is it going to change mine now. So, to have a good game, a solid game I would say, versus a team like that, obviously, it goes into practice and the details and all that, which everybody has talked about, coaching, coach Flus, Thomas (Brown) and all of them. So, I think being able to be consistent throughout the weeks of practice, film and all of the above, I think it leads to a consistent path. I just have to stay on that path and keep going.”

It's a path being blocked this week by a pretty imposing group of defenders in purple.

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.