Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has beat up on bad pass defenses this season.
The good news for the Bears is, the Giants will bring another bad one to Soldier Field on Sunday. After that, though, life gets a lot more difficult for the second-year quarterback — even if he’d argue the premise.
“When you go out there and you play vs. those guys, you know, those guys are playing for their life, those guys are playing for their job and their team …” Williams said Wednesday. “There’s no slouch game. There’s no any of that. We approach each game with the same mindset. All these games build confidence.”
Even the ones against some of the league’s worst defenses.
Four of the eight teams the Bears have played this season have a pass defense that ranks in the bottom five in the NFL. Williams has thrown a combined eight touchdowns and one interception against them, totaling a 107.9 passer rating and a 3-1 record.
In the other four games, Williams has thrown four touchdowns and three interceptions, totaling a 78.9 passer rating and a 2-2 record.
Coach Ben Johnson has said all year the Bears want to be playing their best football in December. For the Bears to get there, the gulf between those two number sets needs to shrink.
The Giants rank 24th in pass defense. Five of the Bears’ last eight games after that, though, come against teams in the NFL’s top 12. Four come in December or later, meaning that Williams needs to take advantage of this month’s ramp-up.
“I’ve got to keep growing,” Williams said. “I’ve got to keep being consistent for these guys. … And when it comes down to game day … just be the same guy I am at practice. And then, from there, go out there and, when it’s time to win ballgames, go win them.”
He helped Sunday, zipping a pass to Colston Loveland before the tight end bounced off a defender and sprinted into the end zone for a 58-yard game-winning touchdown with 17 seconds to play. It was one of the most transformational plays of the NFL season, increasing the Bears’ win probability from 39.8%-98.5%, per NFL Next Gen Stats. That’s the second biggest leap of the year by any team on a single play.
“When the emotions start going and the rollercoaster starts going,” Williams said, “you try and be on equal ends of the roller coaster — where you start flat and end flat.”
When Johnson was asked about Williams on Wednesday, he first pointed to the Bears’ record. They’re 5-3, a start no Bears team has topped since 2012. They have the same number of wins this year as all last season.
“It’s just a different year, a different vibe,” Williams said.
The same caveat that applied to the pass game applies to their record, though. The Bears have played one team all year, the Lions, who have a winning record as of this week. Half their games have come against teams who would pick in the top 10 of the draft were the season to end today, including the Saints, who’d pick first. The Giants fit in with that group, too — at 2-7, they’re the fifth-worst team in football.
“The No. 1 thing is for us to win games, and so we’ve done that five times so far — that’s who we are as a team,” Johnson said.
This season is about developing Williams and trying to win games. One can’t come at the expense of the other. That’s why Johnson seemed happy to declare that the Bengals game was the first time all year that the Bears won because of their offense, not in spite of it.
“I do think [Williams] is getting better every week,” Johnson said. “There’s ups and there’s downs. And some weeks are better than others, which we knew. But he’s in a lot better place now with his process than he was to start the season.
“The week isn’t necessarily smooth sailing, always but I think that’s to be expected with Year 1 in a new system. So he’s learning and he’s spending a lot of time at it. I’m very pleased with his approach. I think we’ve got the right group of guys around him to help support him. And so, I think we’re going to continue to see him take off here the second half of the season.”
And if he can?
“We’re 5-3 and we understand what’s in front of us and where we want to go …” Williams said. “That’s everything that we want.”
