Bear Digest

Obvious message for one Caleb Williams critic: Stick a sock in it

Analysis: One former Chicago Bears player has taken Caleb Williams ridicule a bit too far with his latest offering and probably should stick to actual on-field production.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams' socks are being criticized. Apparently his fingernail color isn't enough for the critics now.
Caleb Williams' socks are being criticized. Apparently his fingernail color isn't enough for the critics now. | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

National media overscrutiny of Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has become an industry unto itself over the last year.

Social media compounds the problem. They tend to take things a little too far.

The latest case of this happened after Friday's preseason finale and actually involved a former Bears player.

ESPN analyst Sam Acho, the former NFL linebacker, decided to include Caleb Williams' socks in his list of things he didn't like from the poor first-quarter performance against Kansas City's first-team defense.

Acho termed William' play as "sloppy" throughout the first half, although he seemed to be forgetting the two-minute drill when the Bears pulled within 20-10 on a pair of outstanding completions to Rome Odunze.

Acho's commentary itself was a bit sloppy.

"The first play was a fumble, he fumbled the snap on somewhat of a jet sweep motion," Acho said.

Actually, he fumbled the handoff attempt because it was ill timed, with Olamide Zaccheus past the point of the handoff on the end around.

"And then after that you saw a couple of sacks that were unnecessary, even a couple of misses," Acho said. "That's not what you want to see in your last preseason opportunity to show what you can do."

Actually, there was only one sack of Williams and it was entirely his own fault. He held the ball so long that the 5 seconds or so of time he had to throw before the sack caused coach Ben Johnson to joke about the great pass blocking. Then Williams staggered out of the pocket and right into an unnecessary sack.

Acho didn't stop there with his slams. He criticized Williams for wearing his "socks halfway down."

"It's not a huge deal but when you're looking at the franchise quarterback, the leader of the team, you want to be in full uniform, you want to be a guy that other teammates can look to," Acho said. "And it's something you can point to when you do have penalties and you're sloppy, you're saying 'man, this guy doesn't even focus on the little things.' "

Really? That's real dog piling. Williams had enough problems in that game that portend to potential disaster without worrying about how his apparel affected his leadership.

He can wear his socks any way he wants if he gets his game in order.

There's a far bigger potential problem at work here than what's covering Williams' feet and where they come up to on his calf. The socks are not part of some overall issue with his body language or leadership. They're socks.

The real problem Acho should have been focusing on is Williams' inability to be ready at the start of games and, in particular, road games.

Although this was only preseason, it was a road game against a strong opponent.

The Bears are going to have an unbelievably tough road schedule this year and if last year was any indication, Williams has problems either focusing at the start of road games against better teams or against better teams or starts to games, period.

Last year Williams had a 78.8 passer rating in first quarters, 95.3 in fourth quarter and 108.3 in overtime. He repeatedly had this issue and the Bears fell behind.

The hope was that the poor early number was simply the result of a poorly coached team with some talent issues on the offensive line being overwhelmed by better teams to start games. The fear was Williams didn't get every detail of preparation down to the point where he could stand up to the crowd noise and adverse road situations in hostile situations.

His passer ratings for all road games was 80.8 in first quarters and 94.6 in fourth quarters.

The Bears saw Williams with pinpoint accuracy in the pocket against Buffalo but that was a home game against the second-team defense. This was a road show against starters and Williams failed on the possessions when he faced the first team.

This is what the Bears have to worry about with almost two weeks until the opener.

His socks are his socks. Maybe Acho should talk about his painted nails and other fashion statements, too, or get a job at thebusinessoffashion.com.

As for Williams' football, there's a lot to work on in the next two weeks and that part of Acho's criticism is entirely valid.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.