Here we go again. Dammit, I said it.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I felt about this game last night because I’ll be honest, this one hit me in the family jewels.
It’s week one, overreactions from week one are silly and are constantly proven to be false. And when I tried to figure out exactly why I was so down, I realized, I didn’t even care that much that they lost.
So if that’s the case, what would it be?
It was Ben Johnson’s first start; there will be growing pains.
The offense looked
disjointed, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that they aren’t clicking just yet with a new system.
There were far too many mistakes on special teams.
There were a few egregious calls against the Bears by the officials.
Even with those calls, there were still way too many penalties by the Bears.
They blew a lead in a very Flusian manner.
Jonah Jackson looked like the guy that the Rams benched last year, and couldn’t wait to get him out of town.
There were plenty of reasons to be down about the performance, but a lot of them were just week one, Ben Johnson’s first game, stuff that I wouldn’t usually worry about.
And I’m still not worried about any of that.
But it hit me: why does this one bother me so much? Simple. All the alarms are going off in my head about Caleb Williams.
Typing that makes my chest tight.
I pounded the table for Caleb Williams. I told fans they were wrong if they thought the team should keep Justin Fields. This was the path. This was the way. I knew it. I wanted others to follow in my line of thinking.
Ted “Theodore” Logan once summarized the philosophy of Socrates as “the only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.”
Apparently, that’s me.
Because when Ben Johnson arrived, Caleb and Ben? That would assuredly be an unstoppable duo. This had the potential to be the next great head coach/quarterback pairing.
So what happened?
When we look at Caleb’s performance, there were positives, no doubt. He showed some great ability with his legs. He made a couple of great throws, especially the ones like the completion to Rome Odunze at the sidelines. He didn’t turn the ball over. He avoided quite a few sacks.
Some issues come with learning a new system, his third in three years. Some issues come with working with a new coach (his fourth in three years). Those weren’t the issues that concerned me.
The issues that concerned me were what it looked like for Caleb Williams, the quarterback. And many of those issues are the types that plague bad NFL QBs. Those are the ones that QBs can’t overcome. Those are the ones that tell you when a quarterback isn’t the guy.
Let’s start with accuracy issues. Williams’ accuracy has been poor, dating back to last year. Williams’s accuracy on both intermediate and deep balls has been lacking; sometimes the accuracy isn’t that he misses by a few feet, but there are misses where he’s off by several yards.
Caleb was off target on 29% of his throws on Monday night. Anthony Richardson was off target on 28% of his throws in 2024. For anyone who watched Richardson at all last year, that’s not the type of company you want to keep.
There’s nothing wrong with checkdowns, and Caleb did them frequently last night. Those checkdowns were a big part of why the Bears scored on their opening drive. But those checkdowns are partnered with Caleb frequently missing open receivers for larger chunk yards, that’s not something that can continue if you want the offense to take strides moving forward. Caleb isn’t seeing the field right now. If he is, he’s not trusting what he’s seeing. He needs to be decisive and fire those intermediate and deep balls when they are there. If you hesitate, those windows close, and the checkdown is all you have.
Where was the poise in the pocket? Williams played frantically, especially in the second half. He never looked like he was in control of the offense. It looked like he was just trying to react to whatever happened. He dirted short balls, he played off balance, and he looked lost.
When quarterbacks look like this, it doesn’t necessarily get fixed with coaching. Many times, it’s just who that quarterback is.
I know we’ve seen some great games from Caleb in the past, and I’m sure we’ll see some more this year. He is an elite talent and will always make a ridiculous play or an amazing throw that drops your jaw. But without the consistent play in structure, without seeing the field and being decisive with the football, those plays aren’t enough to sustain anything.
My mentions are already filling with fans that cite Josh Allen as the poster child for QBs that take a little longer to develop. We played that game with Justin Fields. By 2020, we were even playing it with Mitch Trubisky. I don’t like this game, and I’m not playing it again.
I knew this year was going to have some growing pains, but I certainly didn’t expect regression.
After watching Monday night’s game, can you honestly say there’s any improvement from Caleb Williams as to who he was as a quarterback last year? Did you see any improvement in the faults that gave us some early concerns?
It’s only one game; nobody should give up on Caleb Williams. But if you aren’t pushing the panic button yet, you’d better have your hand over the button. We aren’t at DEFCON 1 with the QB, but we might be at DEFCON 2; there’s no way it’s any better than DEFCON 3.
You don’t have to give up on Caleb Williams, but if you don’t have serious concerns, I think you have your head in the sand.
I’m not ready to live in a world where “the haul” was the right decision over stick and pick Caleb Williams.
I’m not ready to live in a world where the chants on Facebook to play Tyson Bagent are correct.
I’m not ready to live in a world where the team I cheer for can draft a great quarterback prospect and hire an elite offensive mind and still screw it up.
In the moment, the second half last night felt like week one of the 2019 season.
Maybe it won’t age the same way, but in the moment, that’s what it felt like.
Pure dread.
Last night might have broken me. Things need to improve and improve quickly.
Here I am, holding my breath on another Chicago Bears’ quarterback. Here we go again.
Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.
