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Evaluating Caleb Williams' day in the Bears' win over the Bengals
Caleb Williams started slow, but still put on a show at Soldier Field. Anthony Herron discusses that performance.
CHICAGO - Through nine plays, it felt like a familiar tale the Chicago Bears knew so well.
The offense was dormant, hadn’t recorded a first down and had no rhythm to it. Like the past two years under a different offensive coordinator and quarterback, the Bears looked for answers.
That search might be the most frustrating part, especially when the answers don’t immediately present themselves.
But it was Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze, two of the guys who the Bears see as the solution to the problem, who offered a solution to Saturday’s problem at Soldier Field.
To put it simply, Williams made magic. He also had a magician counterpart in Odunze, who made magic of his own.
If these are the main reps the Bears wanted to see out of Odunze and Williams this preseason, it’s hard to argue they haven’t seen enough to say the two can combine to give the Bears exactly what they need on offense in the 2024 season.
"We're going to be explosive," Williams said. "We're two rooks, but we're trying to catch up to the old guys as best we can to make sure that we're right there on par with them to be able to be efficient, function, go out there and be explosive."
If Saturday served as a lesson for Williams, it’s how things aren’t always going to come as easy as they did against Buffalo last Saturday.
The juxtaposition of the two games is telling, to say the least. Williams operated within Shane Waldron’s offense against the Bills and methodically led to two scoring drives. Against the Bengals, that didn’t materialize for a myriad of reasons.
Some of it was the Bengals just making plays. Josh Newton broke up a would-be first down completion to DJ Moore with nice timing. But, other parts of it were Williams missing some easy tosses early, like the miss on a quick out to Keenan Allen on the first play off the game.
"It's not always going be rosy and completions," Eberflus said. "I saw operation that was good. Before the snap, in and out of the huddle, cadence was really good."
That was good for Eberflus. The head coach also like how Williams handled himself on the sideline when the offense wasn’t going well.
But, it eventually did come together. That was because Williams and Odunze got the chance to make magic happen.
It all came together on the last drive. The drive before, Odunze got the momentum going with a 16-yard end-around, but a sack and penalty made the Bears settle for a field goal. On the next drive, Williams found Odunze for a 45-yard gain with an off-balance throw, on the run, right over Odunze’s shoulder.
Not many quarterbacks make that throw. Not many receivers make that catch.
The combination of the two in Chicago makes it easy to wonder what other kind of magic the two can make as they gain more experience and get more chemistry with each other.
The need for experience was evident on Williams’ strike in the back of the end zone to Odunze just a few plays later. A perfectly placed ball, but Odunze was out of bounds. His toes were out of bounds.
"I thought I was Tony Toe Tap back there," Odunze said. "I thought I had at least a foot. You see me, I was like confident with it too, but a mistake. I got to know where I'm at on the field."
That’s easily forgivable. Especially considering how Williams’ seven-yard scrambling touchdown made it easy to forget.
That was Williams’ magic, where he avoided pressure in the pocket with acute awareness and slid out to the left before taking it in himself.
Right tackle Darnell Wright was engaging his block, so he didn’t see how the play unfolded. But, when he turned around, Williams was strolling in with a Teven Jenkins-sized escort.
Wright said the offensive line’s dream is simple: snap, play is live and the pass is away shortly after. Stay in the rhythm of the offense and do what’s designed to work.
But, when it’s hard to get that rhythm going and stay within the design of the offense to start being productive, something has to give. Forcing it rarely works. For Williams and Odunze, the chance to improvise is there, and he knows he has to react accordingly.
That’s why he wants to put the focus on making sure Williams doesn’t have to stress too much about the play by play.
"I'm trying to just do as much as I can to make him feel as comfortable as he can back there," Wright said. "Because then he'll make plays like he does."
When asked about why the offense started slow, Wright didn’t put his finger on one issue immediately. Like Williams said, it was an blend of things.
The biggest thing, however, was the offense found a way to find a chance to be productive and took it.
"Maybe it was execution, maybe it was a little bit of this or that, but whatever it was, it’s football," Wright said. "Just bring it together, keeping the foot on the pedal and then when the opportunity was there, we cashed in."
Williams and Odunze found a way to create that opportunity Saturday.
From Odunze’s end around to start and Williams’ backyard scramble to finish, it did the job it needed to: get the offense going, and show the offense is coming along for Williams and Odunze.
Still, in the aftermath of the magic he made, Williams knows Saturday isn’t good enough for the real thing come Sept. 8 against the Titans.
"We weren't our best today," Williams said. "We started out slow, and we can't do that in the National Football League."
But, even a slow start doesn’t deter the player the Bears are hoping can solve the problem, which is finally bringing an elite quarterback to Chicago.
Even if it is the preseason, Saturday made it easy to believe that Williams can mold himself into the player that can change the narrative in Chicago and that Odunze will play a large role in erasing that script, too.
"We’re going to get a lot better," Williams said. "We're going to keep growing. We're going to have a lot of fun doing it."