Things didn’t start as the Chicago Bears hoped against the Cincinnati Bengals. The offense went three-and-out in their first three drives. Caleb Williams couldn’t find a rhythm throwing the ball. The running game was stuck in neutral. His best play towards the end of the first half was drawing a 43-yard pass interference penalty that probably would’ve been a touchdown. Thankfully, head coach Matt Eberflus saw enough sense to realize the rookie needed more work. So the offense went out for one last drive with three minutes left.
What followed was nothing short of sorcery. On 2nd and 10, Williams pulled out the Superman cape again, escaping the pocket with a spin move and finding Rome Odunze for a 45-yard drop in the bucket while running to his left. It is easily the most absurd throw a Bears quarterback has made in a long time.
Yet somehow, Williams wasn’t done. With the Bears knocking on the door of the end zone, the quarterback faked a toss to his left and rolled to his right. He stutter-stepped to fake a Bengals defender out of his shoes and then threw a missile to the back of the end zone right on the money to Odunze for what should’ve been a touchdown. Unfortunately, the rookie wide receiver didn’t know where the back line of the end zone was and caught it out of bounds.
While he was brilliant to end the half, he still went 6 of 13, indicating that he never really found a rhythm. Not all of it was him. The protection was inconsistent and some of the play calls were iffy. That said, he’s still learning how to play with timing and rhythm. This isn’t a surprise. Rookies typically don’t learn that stuff right away. It takes time. This is why Williams’ improvisational skills are so important. He can lean on them when things aren’t quite clicking. That is what happened against Cincinnati.
The key for the Bears is to continue developing him. They must constantly work on pocket navigation, post-coverage reads, and processing. Given enough time and experience, he should learn to handle those duties like a pro. Once that happens, he can’t start using the improvisations when he wants rather than needs to. That is when he will become truly dangerous.
