CINCINNATI — After all the offseason hype, anything but a stellar performance from Caleb Williams on Saturday night would have felt disappointing.
What Bears fans got in their first look at the starting quarterback Saturday, he was anything but stellar.
Playing against second- and third-string Bengals players, Williams went 2-for-5 for 27 yards and a 58.8 passer rating in his only drive during the Bears’ 27-9 loss. The Bears settled for a 45-yard Cairo Santos field goal after Williams overthrew Colston Loveland near the goal line and later threw wide of receiver Rome Odunze.
That’s not close to 70%, the completion percentage that coach Ben Johnson has so publicly set for his quarterback. Sure, Williams played just seven snaps — and two more on plays that were penalized — but it’s possible to seize momentum in so short a time. The Packers’ Jordan Love played 11 snaps a night earlier, completed 71% of his passes and finished with a 134.5 passer rating.
So what did Williams gain, exactly?
“He gained nine more reps, I know that,” head coach Ben Johnson said.
The fact Williams played at all was a surprise. Johnson had been non-committal about Johnson playing, claiming he’d make the decision after the Bears and Bengals had a joint practice Thursday. The coach was annoyed by three illegal procedure issues in the first seven plays of practice, and thought the offense “needed that work” Saturday.
That work wasn’t particularly sharp.
“We understand it’s the preseason,” Williams said. “It’s not obviously counting, but it does matter. And so that’s something that we live by.”
Complicating matters was the fact that Tyson Bagent, the team’s second-string quarterback, did not make the trip to Cincinnati after hurting his hamstring in the preseason opener. In the next game, the Bears should let Case Keenum handle that. He’s played 80 career games. That’s why he’s here — not to play in the regular season.
Johnson will undoubtedly want to see more from Williams in the three weeks before the Bears open in Carolina. That should be limited to practice, though.
Johnson scheduled his team to leave town for three nights two weeks in a row because he wanted them to find their groove in the practices, not the game. Johnson should focus on what Williams does against the Titans during practice in Nashville on Thursday — and not play him in the Bears’ final exhibition game Saturday. The injury risk isn’t worth it.
Williams, for his part, said he’s up for “whatever coach decides.”
On the first drive at Paycor Stadium, Williams didn’t have a single highlight throw, a stark contrast from the clips of him that were pumped through the NFL universe all offseason.
Ever since he launched the back-pedaling touchdown pass to Cole Kmet — in a game the tight end has to remind his own friends that the Bears actually lost — Williams has been one of the faces of the NFL. He was put on the cover of “Madden 27” and got NFL 100 votes. Jaguars coach Liam Coen even joked that he couldn’t go to the NFL’s web site without seeing “40 photos of Caleb Williams.”
Williams’ best pass was his first. After faking a toss right to running back Roschon Johnson, Williams rolled left and, with Cedric Johnson rushing toward him with his left hand in the air, hit Odunze is stride for 18 yards. He then wobbled a quick pass to Colston Loveland for 10 yards and a first down.
The next time he threw toward Loveland, Williams should have had a touchdown. Instead, he threw the ball too high for the tight end, who tumbled to the ground at the 3. Williams said the play called for him to throw the ball elsewhere but the Bengals had broken coverage that left Loveland open. Johnson reiterated that Williams shouldn’t have thrown the ball there.
Williams’ last pass to Odunze fell incomplete, despite the receiver’s pleas for a flag. Williams said he threw the ball wide of Odunze on purpose; at the last second he saw a linebacker that had dropped into coverage because the Bears kept a running back in to pass protect against a blitz, and he didn’t want to throw an interception.
Braxton Jones’ holding penalty before the incompletion to Loveland had the Bears facing first-and-20. They didn’t gain a yard on either of the next two plays.
“There’s not many calls that you can have for second-and-20 or third-and-20,” Williams said.
He’s supposed to be the great eraser, though, right?
The Bengals thought so little of Saturday night’s exhibition that they started 40-year-old third-stringer Josh Johnson, who has played for 14 different NFL teams, a record for quarterbacks, plus stints with AAF’s San Diego Fleet and the XFL’s Los Angeles Wildcats.
Playing alongside fellow backups, Johnson marched the Bengals 62 yards on 14 plays on the opening drive against the Bears’ starting defense.
By then, Williams was on the sideline doing what he should have been doing — sitting down. And likely regretting that his in-game debut Saturday night didn’t go better.