Caleb Williams is still poised to break Bears QB records despite the rollercoaster season

On November 28, 2024By Littum

CHICAGO (WGN) — Amid a downward spiral in the loss column and trudging forward after an offensive coordinator change, Caleb Williams remains poised to put together one of the best seasons in Chicago Bears quarterback history, despite the bumps in the road , that is coming and all the chaos that has already unfolded around him.

Heading into their Thanksgiving day matchup with the behemoth that has been the Detroit Lions through the first 12 weeks of the 2024 regular season, the Bears are 4-7 and firmly in the basement of the NFC North, all despite a large of talent on the roster that had some preseason prognosticators believing Chicago had a chance to punch above their weight class (myself included).

But it just hasn’t been like that.

The list of issues plaguing this team is well-documented, and these issues fit right into the recent lore of the Bears franchise.

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After a 4-2 start that included a three-game stretch in which Chicago went 3-0 and the offense averaged 31.7 points per game. game, the Bears scored 27 total points over their next three contests – all losses – and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired, becoming the sixth OC to lose his job in Chicago over the past ten seasons.

The offensive line continues to be porous in pass protection – the Bears are second to last in sacks allowed (44) this season, trailing only the Cleveland Browns (47).

Chicago finished with the most sacks allowed in the NFL in 2021 — 58, which is exactly the same amount they gave up in 2022, when they gave up the fourth-most in football. They haven’t finished outside the top 10 in that category since 2020, when they gave up 36 sacks, which was 16th-most in the NFL that year.

After finishing second to last in defense a year ago, the Bears are in the middle of the pack in 2024 with 28 sacks, good for 13th in the league, but after recording 18 sacks in their first six games, Chicago has recorded ten. in their last five.

Then there’s the bad stuff that contrasts with recent history, like how the Bears run defense is giving up an average of 151 rush yards and nearly five yards-per-carry (4.93) over their last five games. This comes after they gave up the fewest rush yards in the NFL in 2023.

The result? A five-game losing streak has put them at 4-7, but Caleb Williams hasn’t been a part of that equation lately.

“I don’t think we expect this kind of thing to happen. I just believe we have to execute better down the stretch. We got coached better down the stretch, Eberflus said after their overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday. “It’s a thing for everybody and again, is it hard? Yeah, it’s hard. You know, you lose three games like this, I think it’s hard.

“But again, you have to be tough. This league, it’s not going to feel sorry for you.”

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Williams completed 60-of-81 passes for 687 yards and 7 TD passes with one interception over the aforementioned three-game hitting streak. Although Williams did not account for a touchdown over their next four games, he has played turnover-free football since their Hail Mary loss at the Washington Commanders, where Williams lost his second fumble of the season.

Purely in terms of interceptions, Williams has not thrown one since October 13th. He left too much air on a throw deep down the left sideline to DJ Moore in the second quarter of their 35-16 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, resulting in Andre Cisco picking him off.

The last time Williams threw an interception on American soil was on September 22nd at the Indianapolis Colts, a game in which he finished with a career-high 363 passing yards, on top of 2 TD passes and 2 INT.

An unblemished record in the interception column has Williams on the precipice of an NFL rookie record.

Heading into their matchup against Detroit, Williams has an active streak of 193 pass attempts without an interception. If he goes without an interception in his next 19 pass attempts, Williams will surpass Kyler Murray (211 consecutive attempts in 2019) for the longest streak without an interception by a rookie in NFL history.

When it comes to franchise marks, he continues to extend the Bears rookie quarterback record for passing yards (2,356 and counting). Williams is also tied with “Chuckin'” Charlie O’Rourke for the most TD passes by a rookie quarterback in team history (11), which set the record back in 1942. he can pass him with a TD pass on Thanksgiving.

With six games remaining, Chicago’s single-season franchise records for yards and TD passes are held by Erik Kramer, who threw for 3,838 yards and 29 TD passes during the 1995 NFL season.

Over the Bears’ final six games of the regular season, Williams must average 247.2 passing yards per game. game to leapfrog Kramer in passing yards, and 3 TD passes per battle to at least tie him in passing touchdowns.

In two games under new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, Williams has averaged 285.5 yards and one TD pass per game. game, which, if sustained, would put him on pace to break Kramer’s single-season franchise mark in passing yards and give Chicago its first 4,000-yarder. fits in the history of the team

“I think that the time for the task has been extremely important. You can never beat that, being able to have time on task,” Williams said Tuesday. “I think it’s given a sense of clarity, a sense of faith and things like that.”

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The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner went 32-of-47 for 340 yards and 2 TD passes, both of which came in the back half of the fourth quarter, helping fuel a furious 11-point barrage in the final 22 seconds of regulation. game.

“Yeah, that’s just true, really inspiring the whole football team, and just really good execution. He did a really good job of executing, I thought all day,” Eberflus said of Williams’ performance against Minnesota. “Because … it’s a tough defense to go against with the different looks and the pressure and the variation in coverage I thought he did a really good job of finding the space … and getting the ball to our ability (players).

“He also changed the speed of the ball that he threw – sometimes he threw it in there (like) a dart and then sometimes he lobbed it … He’s growing before our eyes and today was a really good growth for him .”

Since Brown took over as offensive coordinator, Williams’ late-game heroics from earlier in the season have resurfaced, but he’s also become more decisive and quicker to distribute the football in the face of pressure.

In Week 11 against the Green Bay Packers, Williams was overwhelmed on 30.8% of his dropbacks (12) and went 8-for-10 with 87 yards, posting a 94.5 offensive grade and 92.0 passer rating from Pro Football Focus in those situations.

Week 12 against the Vikings proved to be an even more difficult task for the blitz, but Williams again found a rhythm in the face of pressure.

On the way into last Sunday, per Pro Football ReferenceFlores flashed 157 times in ten games – 11 more times than the second-place Broncos, who had played in one more game. On average, the Vikings had shot on 37.7% of QB drops and pressured QBs a league-high 29.6% of the time on those drop backs.

It turned out that Brian Flores increased the pressure even more on the Bears rookie quarterback, which is a common tendency for a Flores-led defense.

“He’s the king of the cover zero blitz and finding a lot of different ways to do it,” Williams said of the Vikings’ defensive coordinator on Nov. 20. “They’ll switch it up and just fly (Harrison Smith) out from two yards away from me and fly him all the way back to the safety and stuff.”

Williams was lightning fast on 42.6% of his drop backs (23) and finished the game 15-for-20 with 192 yards and 2 TD passes when he was fired. He had a 92.4 offensive grade and a 92.0 passer rating from PFF.

“The biggest thing was getting responses, whether it was alerts or hot routes, or doing a couple of checks. Sometimes with them, they’ll do their checks and you just have to live with it,” Williams said Sunday. “And from there you go out there and they make a play, you make a play and it goes back and forth with a defense like that. So you just have to stay in the game. You stay right there, don’t care.”

Williams was asked about the positives of how Brown has coached him to play quarterback since taking over as offensive coordinator. He said it basically boils down to how his new OC carries himself on a day-to-day basis.

“Thomas (Brown), to be honest with you, I really think just the way he is has helped. It’s just his – I don’t want to use this word – but aura,” Williams said. “He just has a certain aura about him that allows you to play freely. He knows what he wants, whether it’s controls, alarms and all that.

“But to be able to play free … like last game, throughout the game, talk to me, communicate to me when it gets to two minutes, and like today at the end of the game before OT, (he is) like, “Now it’s time to be Superman,” and do all the different things I can do.”

While Williams may have been Superman in the waning moments of the fourth quarter against the Vikings, overtime was a different story. Showing some of his youthful inexperience, he dropped back for more than eight seconds, trying to buy time to make a pass that never materialized.

Williams was dropped by Jonathan Greenard for a 12-yard loss on second down, moments before he couldn’t get the ball snapped in time for a delay of game penalty on third down, and the Bears punted on their only offensive drive in overtime.

“I held the ball too long and they made a great play,” Williams said. “I should have just thrown the ball out of bounds, lived to fight another down, another play, and that’s not what happened.”

Another one of those bumps in the road that often come through a player’s rookie season that needs to be learned from, but is a mistake that Williams owns and continues to work through.

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According to the former USC Trojan, he and his teammates are not the type to give up. He said the progress they’ve shown on offense is promising and will hopefully help get Chicago back in the win column come Thanksgiving.

“You don’t want to be around people who quit, who quit. That’s not the type of guys we have. So that’s encouraging,” Williams said. I think we’ve gotten better on offense, we’ve gotten better over the past couple of games. I think today was a testament to that – being decisive, receivers and all.

“It’s a tough loss just because you get the ball in overtime and you don’t go and close the deal. I like to take pride in two-minute (drills) and stuff like that. I like to take pride in efficient drives , and that’s not what happened today.”

The Bears kickoff against the Lions at Ford Field on Thursday at 11:30 Central Time.

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