Caleb Williams went for the positive Wednesday at Halas Hall.
The Chicago Bears quarterback was reflecting on a question about what it has been like to be him in the first two weeks of his rookie season.
Struggling offensively in Week 1 and still coming out with a win against the Tennessee Titans. Gritting through hit after hit in Week 2 against the Houston Texans. Making some improvements and having a chance to win it — but not coming through — in a 19-13 loss to the Texans.
Williams called it “awesome,” saying he lives for the opportunities he had late Sunday night on a national stage in Houston.
“That was a playoff team last year, and to be down six with a chance to go win with the ball in your hands, that’s all you can ask for,” Williams said. “We’re going to need more (on offense) obviously. But it felt great to be in that type of game, that type of environment. And I’m excited for more.”
After Williams completed 23 of 37 passes for 174 yards, with no touchdowns, two interceptions and seven sacks against the Texans, he and the Bears offense will try to regroup for another road meeting with the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
As they get ready to face a Colts defense that has had some major problems in the first two weeks, here’s the latest edition of The Caleb Williams File.
The buzz
First things first, Williams said he is still a little bruised up from the many hits he took from the Texans defense Sunday, but his movement throwing and running around felt good, at least in the before-practice walk-through Wednesday.
So Williams is properly physically recovering from the seven-sack, 11-hit night he had. He and the Bears now need to figure out how to prevent that from happening again, beyond just better play from the offensive line.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Texans blitzed on 41.7% of Williams’ dropbacks and generated 12 pressures and five sacks when blitzing. The stats service said Williams completed 3 of 12 passes for 15 yards and an interception on blitzes.
The Texans had 23 team pressures overall. Williams was asked what he learned about attacking such pressure.
“Having better communication between myself, coaches and the offensive line, making sure that we’re on the same page and that we’re making adjustments we need to in game,” Williams said. “You obviously have adjustments that you practice throughout the week, but the other team’s job is to try to confuse you and throw different things at you, different looks. Being able to adjust quickly in game is the most important thing. It starts with communication.”
Wide receiver DJ Moore said the rest of the Bears offense also has “to be on it” to help.
“Know our calls, know our protection, know when we’re hot just to help Caleb out,” Moore said. “I know we’ve got to nip that in the bud because it’s a copycat league and other teams are going to try to bring the house at him.”
Williams said the difference between pressure in college and the NFL is the older, more experienced pass rushers he has to avoid. It’s something he said he needs to get used to — and figure out how to recover from.
“It’s the NFL. There are going to be games like that throughout the years,” Williams said. “Making sure I take care of what I need to take care of throughout the weeks (physically) to be able to make sure that we can keep going, and I’m able to go out there and prepare and play well.”
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Spotlight plays
When Williams was running through a list of things he did better Sunday from Week 1 — the rhythm of the passing game and getting the ball out of his hands on time — he stopped for a moment to acknowledge one thing he did worse. Throwing a pair of interceptions.
“I had the two stupid mistakes that won’t happen again,” Williams said.
On Williams’ fourth-quarter pick, the quarterback escaped a sack attempt and threw to tight end Cole Kmet, who had three defenders nearby. Kamari Lassiter leaped to grab the underthrown ball for the Texans’ second interception of the night.
Williams’ first interception was a jump ball to DJ Moore that Derek Stingley Jr. picked off. Williams also had an interception negated because of a Texans penalty.
Of the Lassiter play, Bears coach Matt Eberflus said the Bears need to walk the line between allowing Williams to try for off-script plays — but also making sure he’s smart with them.
“He’s got that special talent to be able to throw on the move,” Eberflus said. “So we don’t want to take that away from him. But it’s got to be where it’s in conjunction with the receiver, meaning that the one to Cole, he’s got to put it where he can get it and nobody else can get it.
“And DJ, when you throw those 50/50 balls, to me those should be 100% balls. So meaning that we’re catching it or nobody’s catching it. And we have to have trust in the receiver and trust in the quarterback to be able to get that done.”
Up next
When Williams was asked what the Bears offense should be able to do well soon, he had a quick answer: Run the ball.
It’s not hard to see why he chose that answer, given that the Colts have had one of the worst rushing defenses in the league through two games.
The Colts have given up 237 rushing yards per game — last in the NFL — and 5.1 yards per carry, ranked 28th. That included 261 rushing yards allowed in a loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
On top of that, the Colts will be without defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, who went on injured reserve with a high ankle sprain.
So a Bears offense that has just one touchdown through two weeks and has managed just 77.5 rushing yards per game will look for a boost. And that should — in theory — help clear up some of the other offensive issues.
“Trying to figure out which runs exactly fit well with our personnel, the people we have. That’s a thing that’s going to emerge here really soon,” Williams said. “Having confidence and keeping steadfast with that, with running backs, receivers, tight ends, everybody having confidence that we are going to break through and figure out exactly what our personality is with the run.
“Everybody knows that having an effective running game just helps everything, and an effective passing game helps the run game. It’s us playing together the way that we should.”
Big number
27: Yards on Williams’ longest pass play of the season.
That play came on the Bears’ final drive of the game, when Williams hit wide receiver Rome Odunze near the numbers on the right side of the field, and Odunze broke a tackle to gain 10 extra yards.
The Bears had a few bigger plays than they did in Week 1 when their longest pass was 13 yards. Williams hit on a 19-yarder and a 16-yarder to Moore, but they’re still looking for more explosive plays. Williams and Moore had a couple of missed connections on long shots Sunday that would have added to their big-play total.
Moore, who has played with many different quarterbacks in his career, said he thinks it takes two or three games for quarterbacks and receivers to get on the same page.
“They really get to see how everybody’s playing and know the assets that they’ve got and just go out there and be able to dial it up and get it to different people,” Moore said.
The final word
It’s been a frustrating start for the Bears offense. And while Moore took responsibility for publicly showing some of that frustration Sunday in the game, he said Williams has “been great” in handling the ups and downs.
“He hasn’t been vocally frustrated or anything,” Moore said. “He’s been coming in and still learning. So waiting to see how he bounces back this week.”
