Bear Digest

The Positive Face Bears Painted on Caleb Williams' Debut

Stressing the win above all else, Bears coach Matt Eberflus wasn't blaming the offense's struggles entirely on Caleb Williams in a 24-17 season-opening win.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams slides after a scramble on a day against Tennessee when he had difficulties hooking up with his receivers.
Caleb Williams slides after a scramble on a day against Tennessee when he had difficulties hooking up with his receivers. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK
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Bears coach Matt Eberflus tried diverting attention away from Caleb Williams after the rookie's debut resulted in a passer rating of 55.7.

It took some real spin control considering Williams' passer rating is ranked 25th in the league among the 30 starters.

Eberflus described Williams as being just a little off after a 14-of-29 effort for 93 yards.

"I think he would say that, too," Eberflus said. "Just his footwork, a little bit off at times but again, he threw a lot of good passes, too.

"So, met with him this morning and that was really about it."

It's not a case where Williams isn't reading defenses correctly.

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"I thought his vision was good," Eberflus said. "Yeah, I thought he was good. I thought he saw it well. I thought he saw the coverage contours. He saw zero and then adjusted on the fly in terms of post snap. I thought he did a nice job."

It's enough to make someone wonder what Eberflus would call a passer rating closer to 80 or 90 than 55.7.

"There was a lot of good throws," Eberflus said. "I mean there was that third-and-5, the stop route to DJ. I thought that was excellent. I thought the rhythm and timing was good there."

Keenan Allen appeared to drop a touchdown catch. There were a few other passes that might have been labeled a drop, and on a few deep balls Williams just missed the connection. He had DeAndre Carter on one but threw long.

"Accuracy was great, and he had several of those, so we just got to build upon the positives, learn for what we need to improve on, reinvest in our team, grow and improve and that's all what we're doing with our coaches this week," Eberflus added.

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The team had its fewest yards on offense since the disaster in Cleveland when Justin Fields made his rookie starting debut and they had 47 yards. The Bears had 148 yards against the Titans, and the running game looked no better than the passing attack.

The Bears had 80 rushing yards and 39 of them came on their next-to-last possession as they were trying to run off time. They had 16 yards on eight carries in the first half.

"Looking at the film today, we just gotta be better, all around the board, all groups, all positions," running back D'Andre Swift said. "It wasn’t good enough yesterday. Ultimately it's a team game. We were lacking.

"Defense, special teams, they were kinda picking up the slack. Thankful for them. As an offense, we definitely gotta be better. All groups. All areas."

Now they're choosing to call it all a positive as an early test.

"It was nothing but adversity," Swift said. "It was good to be put in that position to kinda see what we responded (to) as a team. Halftime there was no panic in anybody's eyes. Coach, when he brought that up at the end of the game, he kinda mentioned that.

"We knew what we were going out there in the second half and kinda do. We didn't know how it was gonna look but we knew we had the guys in the locker room to go out there and turn it around and come out with the win. Ultimately, that was the main goal."

There was some anticipation among offensive players because it was their first time with the offense in a real game, with a rookie QB besides.

"I didn't know how it was going to look," Swift said. "The first time going against a different opponent—we were going against each other for however long camp was. New group, new coaching staff, everything, Week 1, I never had no expectations.

"I didn't want it to look like that, obviously. Come back Wednesday ready to work."

Everyone from the quarterback down to the receivers, backs and linemen have work to do. They all are feeling fortunate to escape with a win.

"It's hard to win in this league, first and foremost," Swift said. "So to be able to win a football game, that's the main goal. But as an offense, you want to have that feeling how we're feeling right now because we know what we're capable of and we know it's not supposed to look how it looked yesterday.

"So we've got to get back to work."

Williams' ability and timing should improve was the bottom line to Eberflus.

"I would just say that as the chemistry builds throughout the course of the season. As we stack these games up, it’s going to get better," Eberflus said. "He’s got a vary accurate arm, his timing is good and the chemistry with the receivers is going to improve every 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.