Bear Digest

Caleb Williams and Bears shrug off shaky first half like contenders

The Bears quarterback saw plenty of opportunities in the middle of the field in a 31-28 win, an area that has been a strength of his all season.
Gene Chamberlain|
DJ Moore hauls in a touchdown pass, one of three thrown on the day by Caleb Williams.
DJ Moore hauls in a touchdown pass, one of three thrown on the day by Caleb Williams. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears know they're on a roll when Caleb Williams can start like he can't see past the line of scrimmage at times and they're losing more than half their defense to injuries, but they still find a way to hold on for yet another victory.

More injuries on defense, one to starting left tackle Theo Benedet, and Williams' rather sloppy first half didn't mean the end of their current four-game winning streak in 31-28 win over Pittsburgh at Soldier Field.

“Today, in the beginning, it didn't feel like I got into a good rhythm," Williams said. "I was missing passes and it was kind of weird. I wasn't too frustrated, like couple weeks ago where I was missing passes and got extremely frustrated and things like that."

At the time Williams had made note of trying not to go into a funk for the sake of the team.

"I think I did a solid job with that this week," he said.

He came out firing in the third quarter, completing five straight passes and leading the Bears downfield to a 25-yard touchdown catch by DJ Moore, after hitting one for 2 yards to Moore and one for 12 yards to Colston Loveland in the first half.

The spotty play that showed in 10 of 21 passing in the first half disappeared as he led two scoring drives to give the Bears a 31-21 early in the fourth quarter. He connected on 9 of 14 for 115 yards, moving the chains a bit more efficiently than in the first half when he also had made one of his most boneheaded plays of the season. That was a sack he worked himself into inside his own end zone, that ended up being a fumble and Nick Herbig touchdown recovery for a 14-7 Steelers lead.

Williams reached three TD passes or more for the fourth time in a gam and was especially effective attacking the middle of the field where Pittsburgh had trouble defending all year.

"This year I think I've been pretty solid over the middle," Williams said.

All three of his touchdown passes were over the middle, the longer 25-yarder almost to the numbers but without anyone close to Moore.

"I think it's something that we worked on and something I've been working on this year and also throughout my career is finding ways to attack all 53 (yards wide) and make the defense cover all of that," Williams said. "I think today coach did a great job of calling the plays. The guys did a great job of running great routes and the O-line, they did a hell of a job today. That one sack was on me but they did a hell of a job protecting me."

Johnson made certain Williams got into a rhythm, at one point calling 18 straight pass plays.

It only made sense. The Steelers came in with the worst pass defense in the NFL and  the only thing that could have hurt them was the pass rush with Benedet out, but Ozzy Trapilo stepped in and held down his own despite the fact he's been practicing at right tackle.

Johnson has begun adopting the wait-until-film-review approach on is quarterback and did again, but in another sense he couldn't be unhappy with 31 points. "That's always a good thing when you get over 30," Johnson said. "From my perspective we probably had a couple that we let get away from us but ... I don't know of many quarterbacks who play a perfect game."

Hitting 19 of 35 for 239 yards looked a lot better in the second half and because it  came with three TD passes. When you're 7 of 13 on third down and 3-for-3 in red zone TD conversions, it's easy to come away feeling positive.

With the defense making plays like Montez Sweat's strip sack or a fourth-down stuff of a tush push, it became a matter of the offense feeling the need not to waste opportunities.

"In those moments those were momentum plays, especially when the defense gets going and they make a big play like that for us," Williams said. "We want to go down and score, whether it's a turnover on downs, a big fourth-down stop or things like that or it's the turnovers that they get for us."

There was once a time when three touchdown passes by a

Bears quarterback would have led to talk they had finally found their savior at the position.

They actually may have, but on this day it was more a situation where the whole team delivered when necessary, including Williams. It's that kind of play they can expect to keep them in the playoff hunt.

The Bears aren't thinking about that now, especially with a game coming in five more days against the world champions in Philadelphia. The fans can think about it, Williams said.

“Like I said, if we go 1-0 in each week, we'll be exactly where we want to be, and they'll be here supporting us, cheering us on like they always do," Williams said.

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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.