Bear Digest

Nine Sacks Taken Teaches Caleb Williams Plenty in Bears Loss

An injury plagued Bears line couldn't protect Caleb Williams properly Sunday in a 19-3 loss to New England.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams is knocked down for a sack by Deatrich Wise during Sunday's Bears loss. Williams took nine sacks in the game.
Caleb Williams is knocked down for a sack by Deatrich Wise during Sunday's Bears loss. Williams took nine sacks in the game. / Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images
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Make no mistake, Caleb Williams deserved a couple knocks on the noggin for a few of the dumb things he did in Sunday’s disgusting 19-3 Bears loss to the New England Patriots.

He didn’t deserve to be treated like a crash dummy, though, and was. With nine sacks, he looked like Jay Cutler in a game against the Giants in 2010 when he also took nine sacks. Except Williams kept playing.

“Obviously, the situation is very frustrating because you want to go out there and execute,” Williams said. “You want to go out there and help a defense that gets you the ball or special teams that gets you the ball on the 50- or 40-yard line three times, four times in this game. And it's tough.

“But to be able to get up each time and do it again and again and again, it provides me learning experiences.”

He should be really smart and wise now because he kept getting knocked down and getting back up to throw.  Williams could have expected it would be difficult to get passes off because his two starting tackles were out but then the Bears lost their best offensive lineman, Teven Jenkins, to an ankle injury in the first half.

FANS CHANT 'FIRE FLUS' IN MISERABLE 19-3 BEARS LOSS TO PATRIOTS

They put former center backup/fullback Doug Kramer in at left guard. They were playing then with 40% of their starting offensive line and the hits just kept on coming.

Williams wasn’t leaning on the sacks or poor pass blocking against a Patriots defense that had only 16 sacks coming into the game. This is because he saw his own stupid mistakes as a problem.  

“I'd say it first starts with me,” Williams said. “I had about two plays, two or three plays in key moments of situational ball that it didn't click in my head.”

One of those was on third-and-seven from the Patriots 31 on the second Bears possession. He held the ball a while, moved around and got sacked outside of field goal range. This has happened three times this season now.

“I could have done better at throwing the ball out of bounds in that situation,” Williams said. “Just knowing before the snap and having a better understanding of where we are on the field is what needs to process throughout, you know, before the snap.

NINE SACKS TAKEN TEACHES CALEB WILLIAMS PLENTY IN BEARS LOSS

FANS CHANT 'FIRE FLUS' IN MISERABLE 19-3 BEARS LOSS TO PATRIOTS

“Other than that, no, only went through two reads in that situation and should have thrown out of bounds because we were at the kick line.”

His completions were all short, with only one completion longer than 13 yards in the game. DJ Moore had an  18-yard gain to start the second half but the Bears never followed up on that and again their best receiver was shut down. He had three catches for 24 yards. Keenan Allen had five for 44 to lead the way. Rome Odunze had three for 23 and although they finally found a way to get the ball to tight end Cole Kmet, he had only two catches for 13 yards.

“So we have to do a better job, starting with us, starting with myself, at situational ball, negative plays and things like that,” Williams said. “And when you're good at not having negative plays, when you're good at executing, when you're good at executing situational ball, you're a tough team to beat regardless of what they're calling over there and regardless of what our coaches are calling on the field.

“When we communicate, when we do our job, when I do my job, when, you know, when we're hitting on cylinders, it's pretty tough to beat.”

It was the second straight game for Williams to take a beating in terms of sacks. That’s 15 sacks in two weeks.

A young QB who’s developing can get into some bad habits repeatedly facing this kind of pass rush.

“Caleb's strong,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “He's strong inside. He's strong outside. He's a strong individual, and he's been through adversity. He knows how to do this.

“He knows how to get through adversity by pulling together. We've got to pull it together with everybody else too. It's important we get that done moving forward.”

On Sunday, they moved backward together as a team, and it’s tough to see how Williams benefits from this.

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.