It was a simple question asked of Caleb Williams in the minutes following the Bears’ 31-3 win against the Browns: How much are you looking forward to a second matchup with the Packers?
The quarterback’s mind went immediately to the way the previous game ended just a week earlier at Lambeau Field: with him throwing a fourth-down interception in the end zone with less than a minute to play and his team down by a touchdown.
“Yeah, I’m excited,” Williams said. “Ended up obviously throwing the pick, as everybody knows, in those last moments, and kind of let that off the hook throwing such a bad ball to [tight end] Cole [Kmet].
“I’m definitely excited. I’m excited for the moment.”
Saturday will be as close to a defining moment as Williams has had in his Bears career — a chance to beat the Bears’ rival to stay in first place in the NFC North, and to avenge an interception that cost the Bears a chance to at least tie the game.
Coach Ben Johnson had no problem with Williams focusing on the way the rivalry game ended.
“I’m glad Caleb didn’t like how the last one ended,” he said Monday. “None of us should, no one likes to lose. The only way you can shake that feeling is to look to stack more victories. That’s our intent.”
Johnson and Packers coach Matt LaFleur have a burgeoning rivalry of their own, their drive-by postgame handshake at Lambeau Field highlighting tensions that started when Johnson said how much he enjoyed beating LaFleur when he was in Detroit. The two were already looking ahead to the rematch when they said, in an oh-so-brief exchange, that they’d see each other in two weeks.
“[The Bears] were pretty quick after [Sunday’s] game to start to turn the page already,” Johnson said. “We’re looking forward to playing meaningful football here this late in December. That’s a good thing for our football team, I think that’s a good thing for the city. It’s really what we were all expecting going into the season. It’s a good thing to come to light just like it has.”
It didn’t take long for the Bears to focus on the Packers after beating the Browns on Sunday —they have one fewer day to get ready for Saturday’s game and are driven by the 28-21 loss.
“Everyone was pissed off after last week,” cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson said. “It’s a great team we played in Green Bay. We accept our loss. We know what we have to do this week to focus on us, really. It’s not about nobody else but the Bears.”
Minutes after reaching double-digit wins for the first time since 2018, Gardner-Johnson said it was time to focus on the Packers. Kmet said he was excited to see what happens when the Bears are the home team.
The rivalry loss still gnaws at safety Jaquan Brisker.
“I feel like we should have had them the first game,” he said. “But we’re past that. It’s time to move forward, play our type of ball.”
Williams can help his own cause by playing well. He’s coming off his best statistical performance since Week 9, when he beat up on a Bengals defense that has given up more points and yards than any team in football.
The Browns aren’t anywhere near as bad — only two teams in the NFL allow fewer yards per game than their 279.1. Williams handled them well in frigid temperatures Sunday, going 17-for-28 for 242 yards, two touchdowns and a 112.5 passer rating. It marked his best passer rating since the Bengals game and his best completion percentage since Week 8 against the Ravens.
He faces a step up in competition the final three weeks of the season.
“I think we’re ready,” Williams said. “We’ve played teams that have a bunch of wins. We’ve played teams that don’t. We’ve played close games. We’ve played games where we’ve beaten teams by a lot. We’ve played teams where we had to win with special teams, offense, defense, running the ball, whatever the case.
“I feel that we’re ready for just about anything — hot weather, cold weather, whatever the case may be. We’re going to go out there and fight. I do know that.”
Johnson said the Bears are better than they were in September, when they lost their first two games. The question is: just how much better are they than they were earlier this month at Lambeau Field? And how much better will Williams be?
The Bears haven’t dominated their opponents this season, winning 10 games despite having a point differential of just 27 points — and that’s including Sunday’s blowout win. Williams can prove his point with a win Saturday, no matter the score.
“I think we need to keep that going,” Williams said. “I think that we will. And I’m excited for that, to be able to help lead these guys in these moments.”