Bear Digest

The 'ice man' cometh and shows the way to rest of Bears offense

Caleb Williams' unique ability to respond late in games under pressure is something his teammates are quickly picking up on, as they keep on finding ways back.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams with Packers linebacker Quay Walker in pursuit.
Caleb Williams with Packers linebacker Quay Walker in pursuit. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle left the coaches' box to go down to the locker room at halftime Saturday against Green Bay and ran into third-team QB Case Keenum right away.

Doyle said Keenum told him: " 'Well, we've been here before. So here we go. This is what we do.' "

The comeback has become the Bears' M.O., mainly because of Caleb Williams' ability to create and refusal to quit. Now it's rubbing off on his teammates, not to mention the city.

"I think they have proved it over and over again," Doyle said. "I've said this before but confidence is born of demonstrated ability. They have demonstrated to themselves that they can be in these tough moments and they can keep swinging."

The fourth-and-8 play for 27 yards downfield to Rome Odunze triggered the comeback that ended later when DJ Moore caught a 25-yard touchdown pass with 1:43 left. It was the pass Williams threw basically without his feet on the ground to Odunze.

"It's amazing," Odunze said. "It's awesome knowing that a guy's back there who can put the ball anywhere on the field, really."

It wasn't a textbook pass, that's for certain.

"We don't necessarily care how he does it," Odunze said. "That was crazy ... pretty incredible."

Now, the whole offense believes this can happen and when that happens, look out.

"Absolutely that confidence that he carries, it's infectious throughout the whole team," Odunze said.

Mimicking their leader

Bears tackle Theo Benedet tied Williams' leadership ability and knack for igniting seven comebacks in the last two minutes this season to the entire team producing in the clutch, regardless of position. They're all inspired by what he is doing.

"They're all figuring out they can do this when they need to do it," Benedet said. "I mean, it's really impressive and I think its something that it's really a prerequisite at that position if you want to have success, given the ebbs and flows of the game and everything that's on your plate

"It really rubs off on us. And I think Caleb, obviously, the more time he spends in this league the more he grows into his leadership role and it's been great to see."

There is more to it than that, Doyle pointed out. There is actual execution, but they all seem to execute more efficiently when Williams does—in the fourth quarter, and Saturday once they trailed by 18.

For the regular season, Williams had a passer rating of 109.1 for throws he made from his 31st attempt on, and when down one to eight points he had a passer rating of 101.2. For the season, his passer rating over all was 90.1.

"So the message, really, to those guys is that it's not going to take a superhuman effort, it's going to take our best effort to be as clean as we can," Doyle said. "We have to focus on the process and one play at a time. Don't look at the scoreboard and we will climb right back into this thing where we want to be. That was really the mindset.

"But I think that our guys do a great job regardless of the situation, they just focus on one play at a time and what's in front of them."

They're able to do it because they see Williams doing it and they’re all doing it.

On Sunday, they're going up against a quarterback who has made a career of such rallies. Matthew Stafford has 39 fourth-quarter comebacks and 50 game-winning drives. He staged another on Sunday to get the Rams in the divisional round.

Williams has eight career fourth-quarter comebacks and seven game-winning drives.

It's apparent, he's just getting started, and Bears fans are going to need to get used to this after decades when the Bears' idea of a fourth-quarter comeback was a pick-6 or a long run by a running back.

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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.