I have mixed feelings writing this article. I am happy that the Bears won – and more importantly, that I CORRECTLY predicted the final score. I can’t however say that I’m impressed with Caleb Williams’ performance. This is a win that was exciting in the moment due to our defense, but has since left me deflated.
Could that game have been worse? Absolutely. We were down 17-0 before the half. I am genuinely shocked that we came back to win that game. Welcome back Buddy Ryan, we really missed your defense. We came back and we won, but at what cost? Rome Odunze is getting an MRI on his knee and could potentially be out, Velus Jones Jr looked pretty bad, and Caleb couldn’t seem to get anything going.
I’m trying to be happy with our win I really am. It could be a lot worse. The Green Bay Packers not only lost their game, they lost Jordan Love for who knows how many weeks. I guess I just wanted more, we all wanted more and Moore out of Caleb. I couldn’t help but think back to Caleb’s quote before the game about how he never gets nervous before games – only to look completely nervous the entire game. It was reminiscent of Justin Field’s discussing how the speed of NFL games felt “slow” to him. He was sacked multiple times afterwards in his NFL debut. That being said, I have to look at what is about Caleb that makes him worth drafting over keeping Fields. With that in mind my biggest takeaway from that game was how good he looked rolling out of the pocket trying to make some last minute deep throws. Those are plays that would have gotten Fields sacked for a 10-20 yard loss. I really like that Caleb isn’t sacked as much and that he has the vision to make plays. There were multiple deep last-minute throws that would have been amazing had they not been slightly over thrown. This to me is correctable. He has the field vision and the arm strength, now we just need to work on his timing and accuracy which can be done.
Other thoughts: I am trying really hard to be a Velus Jones Jr apologist and it is NOT working out for me. Why did we keep in on the team as a WR? It makes absolutely zero sense. Why do we always have issues with the center position? Poles and Eberflus need to figure this out ASAP it is completely inexcusable to have these center issues year after year after year. Johnathan Owens, you are officially a Bear and I am so happy to have you on the team. At least Caleb didn’t throw any interceptions? At the end of the day, a win is a win and as obvious as this sounds, I’d take that over a loss (and an injured QB).
I do think there are a lot of takeaways for 18 from this game, but to your point, I think sorting out the center needs to be our biggest priority. A lot of the sacks we saw were mostly, if not entirely, Shelton's fault. There were a few times where Caleb really should have thrown it away and didn't, but the pass protection was god awful, and a lot of the major mistakes are squarely on the shoulders of 65 IMO.