Bear Digest

Little Things Frustrate Caleb Williams in Faulty Debut

A 55.7 passer rating looked bad but the Bears rookie QB felt he was close to making key connections and there was one thing he did well—didn't turn over the football.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams plants and throws deep during Sunday's 24-17 Bears win over the Tennessee Titans.
Caleb Williams plants and throws deep during Sunday's 24-17 Bears win over the Tennessee Titans. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK
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Caleb Williams might have been more frustrated in college during his senior year.

Then again, he got paid for what happened Sunday. Well, he got paid back then, too, but this time he was getting paid NFL money.

Williams felt slight misses kept the Bears offense from taking off Sunday in a 24-17 win over the Tennessee Titans. It's something he believes he can correct, but at least he could enjoy the win.

"Just the small things, whether it's a pass play that I had to D'Andre Swift in the flat that I missed a little bit in front of him, whether it's missing DJ (Moore) a little bit on the end route on the backside, a little bit in front of him," Williams said. "All these small moments that happen throughout the game that felt like I was in the right place, the right time, and I would say I was seeing it well.

"Just missed and misfired and placing the ball where I wanted to. You complete a few of those. (DeAndre Carter) down the sideline, on the left side line, they end up going coverage zero. Ended up missing him, on a different page and things like that. I think that was the name of the game today for the offense."

The play he spoke about to Carter was a deep crossing route from the right side all the way across toward the left sideline.  Carter got wide open, a play Williams had completed what seemed like a dozen times in training camp, usually to Tyler Scott, who was left inactive Sunday.

"It's just not just being on the same page passing-wise," Williams said. "And run game, we'll be better."

It would be hard to be worse. Swift led them with 30 yards. The offensive line struggled to put together two or three consecutive solid runs without a tackle for loss. Swift broke one 20-yard run and Moore's end around for 14 yards late in the game while they were trying to protect the 24-17 lead was easily the biggest run they had.

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Williams finished with a 55.7 passer rating but his 14 of 29 for 93 yards and 55.7 passer rating looked far better than Will Levis' 19 of 32 for 127 yards and a 52.5 passer rating for one big reason. He never turned over the football and Levis coughed up two interceptions and also lost the ball to T.J. Edwards on a strip sack by Darrell Taylor.

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Williams found DJ Moore five times for only 36 yards, including their long completion of the day of 13 yards. He hit Keenan Allen four times for just 29 yards. Rookie Rome Odunze made one 11-yard catch.

Williams recalled at least one other time he felt this kind of frustration.

"I have," he said. "It was not too far down the road. I hate that you bring it up. It wasn't UCLA. Kind of same defense but not UCLA. It was the green and gold team or blue and gold team that Cole Kmet played for."

That would be Notre Dame and it was last season when USC took a drubbing.

Williams saw the way they talked at halftime as a key.

"We weren't shaming anybody," Williams said. "The defense was not getting on the offense, all these different things."

He attributed this to Eberflus.

"It shows his personality, how much everybody believes in ourselves, the Chicago Bears," Williams said. "The defense believes in the offense, the offense believes in the defense, special teams and so forth.

"We're grateful and happy to get this win. Celebrating in the locker room, it was pretty cool, first time, celebrating in here."

They need to enjoy it for now because a passing attack like this won't last long on Sunday night in Houston. The defense would find doing something like it did tough two weeks in a row.

C.J. Stroud had 234 passing yards and a 115.9 passer rating in a 29-27 road win over the Colts Sunday.

"So it's enough motivation for me," Williams said. "We're going to somebody else's home this week too, and so it's enough motivation for me to go out there, get better this week and make sure that I perform differently next week."

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.