Bear Digest

Caleb Williams oozes confidence Bears' passing game will find a rhythm

The problem with the Bears passing game isn't huge, according to their quarterback, and like his coach he urges everyone to toss out numbers indicating inaccuracy.
Gene Chamberlain|
Edgerrin Cooper gets ahold of Caleb Williams before he can get off a pass in the fourth quarter of last season's Bears win.
Edgerrin Cooper gets ahold of Caleb Williams before he can get off a pass in the fourth quarter of last season's Bears win. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

No matter what it looks like to the casual observer, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams believes the passing game is extremely close to clicking.

To him, 58.1% completions isn't really the 58.1% completions that it seems to almost everyone else.

The problem is, this week is a poor time to expect something better to happen when you're facing Green Bay's defense. He has confidence in this regard, too.

"Yeah, it's so close," Williams said when asked whether they could have a breakthrough soon.

Agreeing with the fact he should have hit Rome Odunze and DJ Moore on throws to the right, Williams pointed out a few other passes missed because of receivers slipping.

"Then we had a couple where it was just miscommunication on him (receiver) breaking in or out and things like that," Williams said. "So we were in the right spot, right time and it's just not on the same page.

"So that's really what it's come down to. So us going back and watching film and looking at it and all that. We're so close and we'll be hitting here soon."

Coach Ben Johnson had suggested throwing out the stats.

"Take the stats out, go watch some ball and you'll be able to really see," Williams agreed.

Johnson had pointed to route discipline and ball location as the big problems.

"Obviously I miss a pass and it looks a certain way to everybody and everybody doesn't know all the details," Williams said. "So you go into that and you look at the stats and you look at all these percentages and whoopty doo, right?

"So you go into all of that and then from there, we come back here and we actually look at the film. Was I in the right spot? Was my drop right? You always look at yourself first and then you go look at the other guys and were they at the right spot? Were they at the right spot at the right time? You try and tie those things together."

The passing attack took a distant back seat to the running game against the Eagles last week but it did produce the 28-yard clinching TD pass to Cole Kmet. A week earlier, Williams threw three TD passes even if it was the running game doing the heavy lifting while overall sloppy passing prevailed.

"We're trying to get to the point where we feel like we can't miss," Williams said. "We got a bunch of young guys, including myself, that are out there trying to make plays.

"It's a lot of film, it's a lot of talking, it's a lot of open communication that we've been having and have to keep having to get to the point where we're hitting on all cylinders at the right time this year."

One thing Williams says he won't suffer from going to Lambeau Field is a stigma about playing there. He won his first start there to close last season.

“It was awesome," Williams said of the 24-22 win. "Obviously, you go through such a tough time and weird time, everybody knows what happened last year. You go and face a rival like this rival that’s been going on for 100 years or so.

"Being able to go out there and defeat them and things like that, it was important for us as players and the guys that are still here. And for the future, we want to keep that going, obviously. You want to win every single game that you play, but this week, since this is the only week that we’ve got, you definitely want to go out there and keep proving ourselves.”

Especially the passing game, because 58.1% looks like 50% or less going against a Packers defense ranked top 10 in sacks, No. 4 overall and No. 6 against the pass.

“I think throughout this whole year, what we’ve been able to accomplish has given us extreme confidence,” Williams said. “For myself, being a part of something that everybody knows the stats of the Bears going up there before last year. It wasn’t the best. Being able to be a part of that, being able to contribute to that, provides confidence for myself and I’m gonna exude that to the other guys.”

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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.