The Chicago Bears allowed three sacks to a very good New England Patriots defense, and as has been the norm this season, the Pats came after Caleb Williams with the blitz. According to Next Gen Stats, Williams was blitzed on 61.5% of his dropbacks in their Thursday night game, which raised his league-leading blitz rate faced to 55.3%. Of the four teams he played, only the Atlanta Falcons blitzed him less than 50% of the time.
Playing blitz-happy Brian Flores and the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2 obviously
skews Williams’ blitz rate faced, but he’s pretty far ahead of number two on the list, Atlanta’s Michael Penix Jr. at 43.9%.
New England’s blitz didn’t faze Caleb, who threw for a career-high 205 yards and a touchdown on 12 of 20 (60.0%) passes on those plays. The Patriots must have thought they discovered a weakness on the Bears because their 61.5% blitz rate was the highest they’ve had this year and the third-highest by a Patriots defense in a game in the entire Next Gen Stats era.
No on to the Sackwtch!
- Sack 16: 2nd Quarter – 1-10-NE 29 (10:55) C.Williams sacked at NE 31 for -2 yards (L.Taylor)
Williams was reading the defense from left to right, and the Patriots had everything covered up. New England’s middle third safety took away Rome Odunze on the post, so if Williams had the time to get back to the right and Luther Burden III, he could have rifled the ball in on the deep cross.
New England defensive tackle Leonard Taylor III got the sack, but that’s because right guard Jonah Jackson lost leverage after Williams was flushed up.
Patriots rookie Gabe Jacas rushed around Chicago left tackle Ozzy Trapilo because Ozzy gave the edge up too quickly.
Look at the depth of the pass rushers on each edge on the screenshot. Right tackle Darnell Wright is in a good position to work his defender around the pocket, while Trapilo lost the corner and couldn’t slow Jacas at all.
This one is on Trapilo, but before moving on, check out Burden again and notice how quickly he broke off his route when he saw Caleb scramble. That’s good coaching and good recognition by Burden; there just wasn’t enough time for Caleb to make a play.
- Sack 17: 2nd Quarter – 2-10-NE 17 (:27) (Shotgun) C.Williams sacked at NE 24 for -7 yards (M.Jones)
The Patriots brought the nickel blitz here by sending Marcus Jones off the Bears’ right side, and the Bears picked it up. Wright left outside linebacker Elijah Ponder (#91) for right guard Jackson, and Wright protected the edge and picked up Jones.
But Jacas got Trapilo on the left side again.
This time Ozzy was in a better position to cut Jacas off from getting around the edge, but he had to turn and open his hips to get depth. That left him without the base to stop Jacas’ inside move.
- Sack 18: 4th Quarter – 3-5-NE 30 (1:46) (Shotgun) C.Williams sacked at NE 40 for -10 yards (C.Barmore). NE – C.Barmore was injured during the play. Timeout #3 by NE at 01:39.
You guys already know where I’m going with this one. Caleb took the sack but was bailed out by Cairo Santos’ career-long 58-yard field goal. While it was the wrong play, I do appreciate his reasoning and accountability.
After the game, Williams was asked what he was thinking when head coach Ben Johnson sent Santos out for the 58-yard try.
“I didn’t know how far it was. I know I took the sack. We’re going to go back and look at that,” he said. “I thought I could take the sack in that situation, keep the clock going, or make them use their last time out. But you know, in that situation, we’ll go back and look at it. I’ll learn from it so when we get in that situation again.”
In his Friday press conference, Johnson was asked what the conversation was like with Caleb before this third down play that ended with the sack, and Johnson took accountability as well.
“Yeah, I didn’t do a good enough job communicating to him (Williams) in that situation,” he said. “I mean, I have to do a better job letting them know that the yards are more important for us in that spot than the clock running or burning timeouts on the opposition or anything of that nature. So, 100% on me.”
Calen and Ben will learn from this.
Here’s the individual Sackwatch tally after seven games:
Caleb Williams – 4.5
Sacks happen – 3
Garrett Bradbury – 3
Ozzy Trapilo – 2
Theo Benedet – 1.5
Jonah Jackson – 1
Colston Loveland – 1
Tyson Bagent – 1
Darnell Wright – 1
Here are the total Bears’ sacks allowed through Week 7 in the Sackwatch era:
2010 – 31 Martz
2011 – 21 Martz
2012 – 25 Tice
2013 -11 Trestman
2014 – 17 Trestman
2015 – 13 Gase
2016 – 13 Loggains
2017 – 17 Loggains
2018 – 16 Nagy
2019 – 19 Nagy
2020 – 15 Nagy
2021 – 26 Nagy
2022 – 27 Getsy
2023 – 27 Getsy
2024 – 20 Waldron
2025 – 11 Johnson
2026 – 18 Johnson
Thanks to all of you guys who check out Sackwatch each week!
