That was ... odd, wasn't it?
Sure, they won the game. But this one was just plain odd.
Caleb Williams looked like the best player on the planet over the course of the Chicago Bears' first two offensive drives against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The throws he was making essentially had fans laughing at how ridiculous and silly they were.
He was on another level, entirely.
And then, Williams absolutely imploded. He went on to throw four interceptions the rest of the way -- his first four-interception game in the NFL (and hopefully his last).
"I’ll never not throw the ball. I could throw a hundred picks in one game, but if it comes down to it, I’m gonna throw that pass to Colston."
Does this surprise anybody?
Since Day 1, Bears fans have known Williams to be as confident as anyone. And, the confidence has never bordered cockiness. There is a genuine, calm confidence around Caleb that Bears fans have grown to love.
Caleb Williams' comments are easy recognized as truth because he's different than Bears' QBs of the past
Years ago, many of us remember watching Jay Cutler throw the football with reckless abandonment. We remember seeing Rex Grossman as a walking, talking turnover machine.
Heck, Williams was thrown into a graphic with the aforementioned Grossman, and Todd freaking Collins, as Bears quarterbacks with such a performance and still win a football game.
Todd Collins and Caleb Williams in the same graphic?
That's disgustsing.
But, no matter which Bears quarterback was chucking the football to his opposition, none of them had the confidence and superstar ability like Caleb.
He's different, and everybody knows it.
So, in the end, we can hear what Caleb has to say, nod our heads in agreement and move on. It's as simple as that.
Caleb Williams' bad game is going to get scrutinized more than his elite peers
What we need to do as a collective fan base, as analysts and as media, is to step back and simply chalk this one up as a bad game.
Every single elite quarterback, ever, has had these games.
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has had arguably the best season of any quarterback, this year, collectively, and just last week against the Tennessee Titans he threw three interceptions.
Against the Titans!
This isn't even a top-5 defense we're talking about.
Yet, I am sure this next week or so, we will see, read and hear a whole lot more about Williams' four-interception game than we ever did about Burrow's three picks against Tennessee.
Why?
Because it's the Bears' quarterback. It's Caleb Williams. Somehow, he's even more polarizing than Burrow. He's been long-easy to criticize. That's just Caleb Williams' story. That's how it is.
So, when you see the national pundits arguing over how much this one game matters in the grand scheme of things, or maybe why this means Williams isn't as good as we thought he was, or any other absurd reaction... just know that it was always going to come. That's what this world lives for.
Let's bring it back to his response, though.
Is there any Bears fan, in the world, who would rather Williams respond differently?
Is there anyone that would have wished Williams didn't throw that ball to Colston Loveland on Chicago's final drive?
What's the alternative? Try to run the football and essentially play for overtime, because your quarterback is having an off night?
Of course not.
We've seen what Caleb Williams is capable of doing late in games. We've seen the type of clutch gene he's shown off time and time again.
And, more than anything, we know that he is the type of quarterback who has the utmost confidence in his elite ability. He's going to keep throwing. He's going to forget about his previous mistakes.
Because that's what great players do.
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