Caleb Williams’ best red-zone read was one of his first.
Midway through the first quarter of the Bears’ first game, Williams dropped back at third-and-six from the Vikings’ 9 and scanned for open receivers. Keeping his eyes downfield, he shuffled forward, then backward, then started sprinting for the front left pylon. He lowered his shoulder and scored his first-ever rushing touchdown in the NFL.
He was decisive. He used his rare skillset. The Bears scored a touchdown.
That hasn’t been the case lately. The Bears scored touchdowns on 30.7% of their trips inside the opposing 20-yard line the past three weeks, which is the third-worst mark in the NFL during that span. The Raiders rank last, with Sunday’s opponent, the Ravens, second-to-last. The two have combined to score 39 points over five games the past three weeks.
That the Bears have scored 76 points over their last three games, all wins, is a testament to their ball-hawking defense. On the year, the Bears have scored half the time they’ve gone to the red zone, tied for 21st in the NFL. Amazingly, the Bears scored on 62% of their red zone trips last year — the problem, of course, being that they didn’t get inside the 20 often enough.
In Sunday’s win against the Saints, their fourth in a row, the Bears scored touchdowns on just 2-of-6 trips.
When coach Ben Johnson bemoaned the Bears’ lack of offensive efficiency this week, his mind turned to their red zone performance.
“That’s the other Achilles’ heel that we have right now,” he said. “We’re making it down there, but we’re not scoring seven points.”
Offenses can’t stretch the defense in the red zone because the “12th defender is the back end line,” quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett said. That puts a premium on precision.
Williams has been openly frustrated by his own lack of decisiveness when weighing whether to scramble or throw on the run. Johnson, meanwhile, pointed to Williams not moving from one target to another fast enough in a part of the field where the game speeds.
“We simply haven’t done a good job progressing to the next [one] fast enough,” Johnson said. “That’s something Caleb’s learning. I think he’ll be better there. As always, we need to be efficient running the ball down there. I think it usually starts with that.”
Former Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt has spent most of his football life studying the best ways to stop offenses in the red zone.
“The offenses that have had the most success are the ones that can run the ball, for the most part downhill, and that have a quarterback that can throw the ball on the move,” Wannstedt said. “It’s very difficult for a quarterback to drop back — if you’re playing coverage and dropping seven — to find a whole lot of open lanes to throw the ball. Everything gets condensed down there.”
If there’s a reason for optimism, Wannstedt said, it’s that the Bears have improved their rushing attack the past two weeks. Williams, he said, has the skillset to throw accurately on the run and to challenge a defense with his legs.
“They have the players to do it. …” he said. “If they were a drop-back-and-hold-the-ball team, I wouldn’t be saying that. But they can move the pocket.”
Turning field goals into touchdowns requires “better execution from all of us,” Williams said.
“The cornerbacks and safeties and linebackers don’t have to drop as much and as far …” he said. “Landmarks, me being on point with that — speaking of pass game, mainly. And then the run game, it just comes down to execution.”
Williams’ execution has been lacking. He has an 85.4 passer rating in the red zone, which is below his 92.9 overall passer rating on the season.
Throwing from inside the 20, he went just 2-for-4 for 12 yards against the Saints. Nursing a six-point lead in the third quarter Sunday, Johnson called four straight runs starting at the Saints’ 22 — and the Bears were forced to kick a field goal.
Having Williams scramble when needed would be a boon to the Bears in the red zone. During the offseason, Bears coaches watched clips of red zone touchdowns across the league, and found an outsized chunk happen on quarterback runs.
“His mobility has to come into play …” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “Quarterbacks are erasers … At times, [option] 1 is not open, 2 is not open, 3 is not open, and he’s got to go make a play and be special. Ben talks about that, when is it time to go put on that Superman cape and go be special.”
The red zone would be a good place for Williams to put on his cape.
“Any time that it breaks down, it may be time to put the cape on,” Doyle said. “But, yeah, absolutely … That’s an area that we’re working really hard to improve.”
