Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has been through some ups and downs during his season and a half in the NFL. Coming off a rough performance against the Saints, he needs to pull out of his most recent dip and prevent it from becoming a nosedive.
That’s going to be a challenge against the Ravens on Sunday.
Despite being 1-5 and having allowed the most points in the league at 32.3 per game, no one is dismissing them. The Ravens have been elite for years, and they’ve got credibility when they say they’re going to straighten themselves out.
There’s rarely an easy game in the NFL anyway.
So the Bears need Williams to click sooner rather than later if they’re serious about vying for a playoff spot this season. The defense and rushing attack carried them against the lowly Saints, while Williams had season lows in completion percentage (57.7), yards (172) and passer rating (61.7). He didn’t have a touchdown pass, threw one interception and fumbled once.
Those concerning numbers reverberated locally and nationally. Quarterbacks have off games occasionally, but Williams hasn’t built enough of a track record for this to be brushed aside.
That level of performance usually won’t be good enough to beat even a bad opponent — Williams was aided by the Bears’ defense getting four takeaways — let alone a Ravens team that is stacked with stars on both sides of the ball, coming off a bye week, playing at home and desperate to save its season.
“Their record really doesn’t indicate what they’re capable of doing,” coach Ben Johnson said.
He said something similar about the Saints, the difference being that this time it’s true.
The Ravens had Pro Bowl picks at every level of their defense last season, led by ex-Bear and All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith and versatile safety Kyle Hamilton.
It’ll be even more important than usual for Williams to do all the little things right and simply play sound football. That means throwing accurately, being decisive in the pocket and taking the easy passes when they’re available.
He had issues in those areas against the Saints, especially his declining completion percentage. It was his third game under 60%, dropping him to 61.1% for the season and leaving him well short of Johnson’s goal of 70%.
It was among the worst performances of his career and raised a crucial question: Why is this happening six games into the season after the Bears hired the best available offensive mind to get him on track?
Williams isn’t getting the same margin he got as a rookie. The Bears have playoff ambitions and are trying to build something quickly to take advantage of his rookie-contract window.
When a team gets elite quarterback play for such a low salary-cap hit, that’s a recipe for a trip to the Super Bowl. The Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes), Bengals (Joe Burrow), Eagles (Jalen Hurts) and 49ers (Brock Purdy) reached or won the Super Bowl in that scenario.
At this point, it’s on Williams more than anyone else. The Bears have gotten him a suitable offensive line, stocked the roster with skill talent and hired the ideal coach. Williams needs to take all of that and run with it. Other quarterbacks have succeeded with less.
The first imperative is that he dials in on his fundamentals and makes sure he’s throwing the ball exactly where he wants it to be. When he gets loose with his footwork, that’s typically where the accuracy begins to unravel.
And while his scrambling ability has been impressive, it also has been excessive. When he buys that much time in the pocket, receivers surely are popping free. That’s when he must rein in his gunslinger mentality and take the prudent play underneath. There also are openings to take off running, get a decent gain and slide safely.
Then he has to be able to take and make the “layups” the Bears talked about with predecessors Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky. Those check-downs and relatively easy passes are how quarterbacks assemble great passing games. It takes a bunch of those and only a few of those splashy plays that are much harder to make in the NFL than they were at USC.
Williams said it’s “a constant thing in my mind” to keep the offense moving by taking the easy completions.
Johnson noted Wednesday that even though his team is 4-2, it has yet to play a strong all-around game. If everything comes together, it’ll be “a beautiful thing.” But if the running game and defense are clicking, the only element left to fall into place is Williams. The Bears can’t wait forever.
