Bear Digest

Bears can use some of Caleb Williams' big moments early in playoff game

There is no doubt Caleb Williams knows how to spark a comeback and he finds playing well in big moments natural, but the Bears can use some early scoring.
Gene Chamberlain|
When it comes to comeback mode, Caleb Williams is using his arm and his legs to rally the team.
When it comes to comeback mode, Caleb Williams is using his arm and his legs to rally the team. | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Caleb Williams has been described by Bears coach Ben Johnson as "built for big moments."

It’s definitely not a description Williams backs down from heading into Saturday night’s playoff game against Green Bay, even if he hasn’t really played a lot of successful or high-level postseason football since high school.

“Yeah, I think I am built for these moments, mentality-wise, how I've worked,” Williams said Tuesday at Halas Hall. “And so that's, I've been in a bunch of big games before and a bunch of big rival games. And so, in those moments and in these moments, I think I can provide a spark for the team.

“I think I can do whatever my team needs me to do, whether that's stand in the pocket, whether that's run, whether that's scramble, whether that's, whatever, hand the ball off 30 times and be energetic about it. Whatever it takes is where I'm at, where I'm going to be at for these next couple of weeks hopefully."

Williams’ last postseason game was during the first of his two years at USC, a 46-45 loss to Tulane at the Cotton Bowl.  He quarterbacked Oklahoma to a 47-32 win over Oregon in the Alamo Bowl the previous year.

Familiar big opponent

Really, the Week 16 win over Green Bay in overtime was Williams’ best big game under pressure, as he led the miraculous comeback from a 16-6 deficit and won it in overtime.

"I treat them all the same,” Williams said. “All the big games are the same to me. Doesn't matter if it was high school for me, whether it was college, or anything like that.

“Whether it was a game that's gonna get us into the playoffs. I think the mindset of it just changes a little bit because you know you don't have another game if you go out there and you don't accomplish the goal."

Williams had boasted in the past about how he didn’t get nervous before games. This is critical at late junctures.

"I think it's just the trust I have in myself, the belief in myself,” Williams said. “A little bit of that arrogant confidence on the football field, and then the trust and belief and who I have protecting me, the trust and belief in who I have calling the game and then the trust and belief in who I have on the outside and in the backfield." 

Williams corrected this statement though. He was nervous once.

"One time. It was my first game versus Gilman at their place in high school,” he said. “And then after that, it was all good." 

Rally time

On Saturday night, they require that "arrogant confidence" again.

The place it has shown up the most is at games’ ends.

“Yeah, we’re never out,” Johnson said. “Our guys know that and I think to your point, we certainly don’t want to have to lean into that each and every week. We’d like to start off a little bit faster and make it more of a complete game for 60 minutes.

“But just the fact that teams understand when they play us now that they have to earn it, they have to really close us out of if they want the victory because we can score points in bunches, we can do it in a short amount of time and I think we’ve proven that.”

Tight end Cole Kmet has seen Williams’ poise under pressure even when the pressure didn’t seem as high as it is this week.

“Yeah, I think that's just something that he's had, and he's kind of just been born with,” Kmet said. “I don't know if that's something he's had just since he's been playing football and playing football and playing sports in general but I felt that last year, too.

“And I know results weren't great last year, but there were countless times where he drove us down the field at the end of the game to either put his position to win, tie or go ahead, but this year, obviously, that gets highlighted more just because of the winning record and all that stuff. But he's just got great poise out there, and he remains the same. And I think he understands, especially this year, when he has to go make a play when it's needed. And I think we've seen that come up time and time again.”

Beating slow starts

They might want to lean on some of that arrogant confidence earlier for a change. The Bears haven’t scored on their opening drive since they beat Cincinnati 47-42 on Nov. 2.

Johnson is addressing this with the team but the slow starts aren’t irking him as much overall as just lack of points.

“Like I’ve kind of alluded to you before, any time we take the field on offense and we don’t end up with points, I’m disappointed,” Johnson said. “All of our guys are disappointed.

“You find out what happened, what went wrong and you look to make those corrections and put it past you. That’s how I deal with it.”

It didn’t quite work last week against the Lions, and neither did Williams’ comeback ability. They can’t afford another slow start and put too much on the comeback QB.

“It took us a while this past week and when we got going, it felt like we got in a good rhythm and, you know, same with that previous Green Bay game,” Kmet said. “We just got to come out to a fast start and I think (if) we do that, we’ll like the result that we get.”

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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.