Bear Digest

Caleb Williams might be made for big games but hasn't played in many

While the Bears QB has been in important regular-season games in college and the NFL, he hasn't been under a spotlight like he'll be under Sunday night.
Gene Chamberlain|
Packers defensive end Kingsley Enagbare pressures Bears QB Caleb Williams in Week 16.
Packers defensive end Kingsley Enagbare pressures Bears QB Caleb Williams in Week 16. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It seems like the Bears are forever trying to make up deficits in games these days, but the biggest deficit they face is coming this week.

It has nothing to do with trailing during a game. It's the playoff experience deficit the Bears have in facing Green Bay.

Playoff football is often said to be played a higher speed or steeper pitch. Whether that's actually true or not, there's no denying the intensity is higher because it is lose and you're done.

"You can try to describe it as much as you can but until you go through it yourself first hand, I think that’s the best way to learn," coach Ben Johnson said Monday as the team "turned the page," so to speak, from the regular season. "I think we have a lot of veterans who have been here before so they know what that’s about and they can certainly share those experiences with the younger guys."

Johnson believes the coaching staff has the proper experience to guide them along through the postseason.

"But my experience has been this is where the details and the fundamentals come out to the forefront," Johnson said. "As simple as it is, it’s the blocking, it’s the tackling, it’s the proper catching of the football, ball security, taking the ball away. It’s all those little things that show up the most when the lights are the brightest."

Caleb Williams the big question

Of course, this naturally leads to where the Bears have absolutely no playoff experience. That would be quarterback Caleb Williams.

“He’s played in a lot of big games over the course of his life," Johnson said. "I think he’s primed and he’s ready to go. He was built for these moments.

"He plays his best when we need him to, and so, there’s really not a whole lot that needs to be said. He just needs to be him.”

Williams has only what others have told him for a basis.

"The good thing about it is we're going into the playoffs here, and we've got to find ways to get better," Williams said after Sunday's loss. "The focus has to level up. The urgency has to level up. The play has to level up. The mindset, mentality on the field has to level up because that's what playoff football is.”

His counterpart actually knows playoff football personally. Green Bay's Jordan Love had three postseason starts the past two years. His level of success hasn't exactly been like in the regular season, with five touchdown passes, five interceptions and an 83.4 postseason passer rating. He did win his first postseason start, though, and it was on the road.

Saying Williams is made for these moments only sounds like someone is trying to boost his confidence.

Williams' biggest game was the miracle win over the Packers in Week 16. He has proven he can lead the team to success in regular-season games. As a rookie, his big win was over the Packers after Love had been pulled from the game so they could keep him healthy for the playoffs.

In college, Williams never played a really high-stakes game at a national championship level.

While at Oklahoma, he became a freshman starter and triggered a winning streak but they lost two of the last three regular-season games and he had a good game in a 47-32 win over Oregon at the Alamo Bowl. Those were the nation's 14th- and 15th ranked teams.

At USC in 2022, he led wins over UCLA and Notre Dame to get to the Pac-12 Championship Game and USC was beaten soundly 47-24 by Utah.  Then they lost 46-45 in the Cotton Bowl to Tulane. In his last season, USC finished with a series of losses and there was no postseason success for him.

Williams would have to go back to his high school career for championship level football, but lots of quarterbacks and other players can say the same. Even Ben Johnson can.

Little elsewhere as well

As for the other Bears, only tight end Cole Kmet and kicker Cairo Santos played in a playoff game with this team back in 2020.

Among Bears starters, Jaylon Johnson, Jaquan Brisker, Kyler Gordon, Gervon Dexter, Rome Odunze, DJ Moore, Austin Booker, Darnell Wright, Ozzy Trapilo and Drew Dalman have never been in a postseason game. Meanwhile, Matt LaFleur had the Packers in the playoffs in five of his six seasons and the last two, as they’ve built a good experience base.

There's no way to tell what the playoff inexperience effect will be.

"No, I wish there was a secret sauce," Johnson sad. "It starts with the type of people that you have in the building.

"That’s kind of been something that we’ve highlighted with guys that we’ve brought in both from a free agency perspective but also with these draft picks, that they’re going to be poised under pressure and that they’re going to rise to the occasion when the lights are bright like this."

They'll take their chances now, and whatever the effect it sure beats cleaning out their lockers on "black Monday."

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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.