Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams helped knock off former head coach Matt Eberflus in Sunday’s 31-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys, but the second-year signal-caller has insisted there was nothing personal behind the victory.
Williams had one of the best games of his young career against the Cowboys on Sunday, completing 19-of-28 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns against Eberflus’ unit. It helped that his offensive line limited the Cowboys to just one quarterback pressure and kept him from getting sacked for the first time in his 20 career games in the NFL.
For some fans, the Bears’ dominant offensive performance offered a measure of revenge against the team’s former head coach, who posted a 14-32 record in his three seasons.
After the game, however, Williams downplayed the personal element of the win, even though he made it clear that defeating his former head coach felt “great” on Sunday.
“I don’t think it really necessarily matters who when you are able to have a game as effective as we were able to have on offense,” Williams said in Sunday’s postgame.
“It feels great, to be honest, whether it was Matt or it was any other defensive coordinator, [Brian Flores] Flo or anybody else that we played or anybody else that we’re going to play. When you’re able to go out and score a bunch of points on offense, it’s fun, obviously, because you put in so much hard work and you want to be able to go out there and execute the plays that are called. That’s what happened today.”
Bears Took Advantage of Matt Eberflus Familiarity
The Bears played a good game against the Cowboys, avoiding penalties and execution issues to claim their first win of the 2025 regular season. In at least some part, though, the Bears benefitted from their familiarity with Eberflus’ defensive scheme in Week 3.
For instance, Bears head coach Ben Johnson dialed up a flea-flicker play in the first quarter of Sunday’s win that went off without a hitch. Williams caught the deceptive pitch-back from running back D’Andre Swift and hurled it 62.1 air yards downfield in the knick of time, finding rookie wideout Luther Burden III for a 65-yard touchdown.
After the game, Johnson and Williams both spoke about how they had worked all week on the flea flicker in practice to ensure they would execute it right against the Cowboys, but Johnson also gave credit to his staff for finding an exploit in Eberflus’ defense.
“We have gadgets up every week,” Johnson said Sunday night. “I give the staff a lot of credit. They’re going through, watching the tape and finding out things that may or may not fit, whether it’s Dallas this year, or some of the stuff we’re watching of Chicago’s defense from yesteryear. So that was really a staff find. And we worked it all week and felt comfortable calling it this week.”
Caleb Williams Continues to Show Progress in 2025
While the Bears are still trying to pull themselves out of the muck of their 0-2 start, they should feel encouraged about the progress that Williams has shown thus far in 2025.
Williams has gradually played better over the first few weeks, improving his completion percentage and passer rating in each of his three performances and looking increasingly more settled — particularly with his refined footwork — when dropping back to pass. He also mailed accurate deep balls against the Cowboys, an area in which he has struggled.
For his efforts against the Cowboys, Williams earned the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Week honor in Week 3, which should help further boost his confidence for this week.
Even still, the Bears must continue to see improvement from Williams to feel certain about him as their long-term answer at the quarterback position. He will have another opportunity to prove himself in Week 4 against the Las Vegas Raiders, who have the ninth-worst passing defense through the first three weeks of the regular season.
The Bears (1-2) will face off against the Raiders (1-2) at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday.
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