Coach Ben Johnson doesn’t need to remind Caleb Williams of anything Saturday.
He doesn’t need to point out the stakes of the Bears’ first-round playoff game at Soldier Field. They haven’t won a postseason game in 15 years.
He doesn’t have to tell him about the opponent. The Bears’ 213th game against the Packers will only be their third postseason meeting.
And he doesn’t need to tell Williams what to do after he set the Bears’ passing-yardage record and led them to their first NFC North title since 2018.
Williams knows.
“He was built for these moments,” Johnson said. “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.”
If that’s good enough to win against Green Bay, the possibilities are dizzying for a franchise that last won the Super Bowl 40 years ago. Williams would etch himself in rivalry lore, position the Bears as a contender to win the NFC and give fans something to dream about for the next decade.
“I think I am built for these moments, mentality-wise, how I’ve worked,” Williams said.
Williams can pinpoint the only time he has ever been nervous on the football field — in 2017, when he started his first varsity high school game as a freshman. Williams fumbled two snaps at Gilman School in Baltimore but had 140 passing yards in a 38-0 win.
“I think it’s just the trust I have in myself, the belief in myself,” he said. “A little bit of that arrogant confidence on the football field. And then the trust and belief in who I have protecting me, the trust and belief in who I have calling the game. And then the trust and belief in who I have on the outside and in the backfield.”
Since then, he has played in college rivalry games — against Texas and Oklahoma State while at Oklahoma and against Notre Dame and UCLA while at USC. He has won two of his four games against the Packers — as many as Jay Cutler did in eight years and more than Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky combined. He’ll face them for the third time in six weeks; it’s the first time that has happened anywhere in the NFL in 13 years.
“All the big games are the same to me,” Williams said. “Doesn’t matter if it was high school for me, whether it was college or anything like that. Whether it was a game that’s going to get us into the playoffs. I think the mindset of it just changes a little bit because you know you don’t have another game if you don’t accomplish the goal.”
Williams can’t afford another repeat of last week, when the Bears were held scoreless through the first three quarters against the Lions. Williams and Johnson have emphasized a fast start for weeks with varying levels of success. In their last five games, starting with a loss at Lambeau Field, the Bears have been scoreless at halftime twice and held to three points once.
“We just came out flat [Sunday],” Williams said. “We don’t have time for that anymore.”
Johnson and Williams have tackled challenges together all season, which portends well for their partnership and speaks to how far the two have come in the 50 weeks since Johnson was hired. When they met, Williams said he wasn’t even sure Johnson liked him.
This week, Johnson called Williams “a completely different quarterback than when we first took this job.” From moving under center after playing most of his career in the shotgun to cleaning up his footwork to mastering pre-snap motion, Williams has risen to the occasion.
“He’s played some good football here, particularly in the back half of the season for us, and we’re going to need that,” Johnson said. “We’re going to need him at his best. We’re going to need all of our players at their best. I’m hopeful we’re going to get that.”
Johnson has rallied the Bears to six fourth-quarter comebacks this season, the most in the NFL. In his last matchup against the Packers, he led the Bears to 10 points in the last 1:59 of regulation and threw a 46-yard walk-off winner to DJ Moore in overtime. In his first game against the Packers this season, he threw an interception to cornerback Keisean Nixon in the end zone with the Bears down seven and driving with 22 seconds to play.
“When the games are tight and if you need him to make a play, he’s going to do that,” safety Kevin Byard III said.
If he does it Saturday night, Williams will make history.
“I feel that I’ve grown tremendously so far this year,” Williams said. “It’s exciting to see. That [11-6] record was more or less the growth that I’ve had. That’s where I’ve been at; that’s where my mindset’s been at. Then at this moment, it’s at an all-time high for myself in confidence.
“I’m going to go into the game that way.”