Chicago Bears fans had to check their blood pressures after the stress that quarterback Caleb Williams put them through in their 27-24 Week 9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Williams and the team got off to a promising start, posting nearly 150 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter alone. That all changed after that, when he threw four interceptions in the second and third quarters. Luckily, Williams' clutch gene came in and led the Bears on a game-winning drive that ended with a Cairo Santos field goal as time expired.
Williams finished the game completing 22 of 37 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns, with four interceptions (a new career-high). To his credit, though, he came through in the clutch on the final drive, completing three of four passes, including a 38-yarder to Colston Loveland to put them in position for Santos' field goal. Still, this is a performance the Bears franchise quarterback will have to learn from, and his head coach, Ben Johnson, is making that known.
Ben Johnson has a lesson for Caleb Williams to learn from after Bears win
After the game, it was clear from the press conference to the locker room speech that Johnson wasn't happy with the offense. There was no stanky leg celebration, and the "Good, Better, Best" chat was as dull as it's ever been.
Even with that frustration boiling over, Johnson seemed to have a better perspective when he spoke with ESPN Chicago about Williams' interceptions. The Bears coach seems to believe his young signal-caller will learn a lot from watching the tape.
"There's a lot of good tape for us to learn from here. You know, this is the thing about Caleb Williams is he's never been a guy, whether it's college or the NFL, to throw interceptions. So this is an aberration for him. Yeah. And it's good tape to learn from.
"We knew that we were going to be a little pass-heavy going into this game, and that was part of the plan. So when that ends up taking shape and form, you know, we'll store some of these looks into our library and our database in terms of how these coverages were unshaping and all that. And we'll learn from it.
"But I think we'll be better in the long run, as, once again, you still get a win even though we're not playing at our best or executing at our fullest. And I think we'll be okay."
Caleb Williams has no choice but to clean up his mistakes during the bye week
This is a pivotal moment in Williams' season: he can either let those interceptions define him or make sure he fixes them. Even so, not every interception was as bad as fans think.
On two of the throws, Williams tried to throw the ball away but didn't get enough air on them. That's something he can easily fix.
Of course, the Williams haters will come out of the shadows of his success over the last three games to pour on the criticism. Sure, he deserves some criticism for the way he played, with the turnovers and misfires on throws. In the end, it's really just one game, and it shouldn't define what has been an overall good season.
This really isn't talked about as much, but you can't pin everything on Williams. The offensive line really struggled to hold up, as the Buccaneers got 21 pressures on him and one sack. While Williams did a good job of avoiding sacks, the pressures caused his four interceptions
The good news is the Bears enter the bye week at 7-2 and can use this time to clear their heads and fix mistakes before running through the final eight games of the season. Williams could use the break to get away and clear his head before getting to work.
Every Bears fan knows that over the next two weeks, when the team is together, Johnson will push his offense to play better. The head coach is especially going to coach Williams hard to make sure he doesn't have another four-interception game
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This will blow over, and the Bears will be back to being dominant once they heal up and use the break to relax. There's no reason to panic about Williams because he's still one of the NFL's top quarterbacks. These last eight games will be electric with a very motivated Williams running the offense.
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