After the Chicago Bears' eighth win in nine games, it's still easy for many fans and critics to bring this team down. Say what you want about the schedule or even "luck," if you want to stoop that low, but this season's success can be traced back to two people above them all: Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams.
As for the latter, Pat McAfee is seeing exactly why Williams has been on the rise this year. In a recent episode of The Pat McAfee Show, he explained precisely why Williams has been able to operate within Johnson's offense so well, compared to earlier in the season.
"He needs to be able to hand that ball off to the running back, and then he needs to be able to play-action the s*** out of that defense ... Caleb Williams spent his entire life shotgun looking at everybody," he explained.
Pat McAfee highlighted the obvious growth from Caleb Williams under Ben Johnson
"Now they're asking Caleb, for the success of this offense, you have to take the ball, commit completely ... turn your back completely to the defense, sell this thing, so the linebackers can't move ... and then as soon as you turn, you need to know the ball is going to go right to the seam...
"We don't need you thinking ... don't be scared of getting hit in the face, it could happen ... you will have wide open guys everywhere, and I'll tell you what, yesterday against this Pittsburgh Steelers defense? Wide open guys everywhere."
It seems pretty obvious, but we haven't heard much national media talk about this. Coming out of college, Williams was almost purely a shotgun quarterback. His offenses operated almost always out of shotgun rather than going under center.
Now, Johnson is not only getting Williams more comfortable under center, but he's using play action to absolute perfection. If you noticed this past week, Williams' play-action passing was what diced up the Steelers defense more often than not.
He did precisely what McAfee was talking about: turning his back to the defense, freezing the linebackers and even the safeties at times, and immediately coming back around to let it rip.
And to McAfee's point, there were open receivers for Williams all day long. Maybe the most talked-about example came on a third-and-five when Williams had Luther Burden as open as you'll see him, in that scenario, maybe ever.
Williams has not only adapted and learned Johnson's system and the tendencies his new head coach would like him to play with, but he's doing it at a high level. Are there accuracy issues at times? Sure.
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But Williams is putting it together piece by piece, and the results are exciting, almost as exciting as what could continue happening in the future.