Bear Digest

Missed Opportunities for Caleb Williams in Loss to Texans

From long passes overthrown to the seven sacks he took, Caleb Williams went through a tough Week 2 but it was aesthetically and statistically better than Week 1.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams tries to scramble away from Mario Edwards Jr. in the Bears' 19-13 loss to the Texans.
Caleb Williams tries to scramble away from Mario Edwards Jr. in the Bears' 19-13 loss to the Texans. / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
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The first thing Bears QB Caleb Williams pointed at were the two interceptions.

Considering the pass blocking, it's surprising there weren't more turnovers in Sunday night's 19-13 loss to the Houston Texans.

"You know, myself throwing two interceptions, it's not something that I've done, something that I do, is, is turn the ball over," Williams said.

The NFL is different and Williams is finding out rapidly how fast the game is. The trick is getting out ahead of it.

For the second straight game, Williams was left pointing to what might have been. A missed opportunity on a deep ball to DeAndre Carter when he rushed it long and in complete could have been the game-changing TD.

"Just, I mean, we just right there, you went back or I went back and, you know, saw the, you know, the, the pictures that we have, the still pictures," Williams said.  "And, you know, if, you know, we would have connected on that, he would have went down the sideline and, you know, and took it.

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"So we were they were just right there for having a, you know, a big explosive touchdown and didn't work out. So, you know, I was a little frustrated, but also like, you know, we were, we were right there almost hitting a huge play."

Williams' yardage total grew from 93 to 174 and his accuracy improved from 48.2% to an acceptable 62.2% on 23 of 37 against a better defense than he faced in the opener. However, he was only 11 of 22 for 83 yards with two interceptions in the second half, when the game got decided. He came out of it with a 51.0 passer rating after he'd been at a respectable 91.9 going in at halftime.

"Yeah, I felt better today, felt more rhythm, felt more, you know, just, you know," Williams said.

What he also felt was bruised up. He took a couple of big shots at the sidelines while scrambling, without getting a flag thrown. He also took seven sacks and put his head down to run like a running back at the goal line in the first half on the team's longest run of the day, a 9-yarder.

The Texans ratcheted up the pass rush pressure in the second half and Williams has said his strength so far hasn't exactly been handling blitzes.

“Yeah, I mean that there's certain points where I think he did a really good job of riding up in the pocket and making some good throws,” coach Matt Eberflus said.  “So there's some really good positives there that we can look at.

“And then also he he was able to evade the rush a couple times and get on the perimeter. You know, then he has to be careful with the football after he gets out there when he throws the ball, you know, in a scramble drill. So there's some great learning moments there for him, you know, in terms of the pressure that you're talking about, of what to do and when to do it."

The other part of the pressure was the beating he took. Seven sacks will do this.

"I'm a little bruised up," he said. "I took a couple hits today. I'm getting iced up and doing all the things I need to do."

Doing what he needs to do on the field is the more important part for now heading into next week's game at Indianapolis (0-2).

"Probably the things that I'm most, you know, frustrated about, you know, back out there, you know, we didn't execute the way we needed to," he said. "And you know, we're going to keep getting better.

"Everything's about the responses."

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.