Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams knew he threw the ball a lot in Sunday’s loss against the Indianapolis Colts, but he didn’t know his exact number of passes when he met the media at Lucas Oil Stadium.
He was told it was 52.
“I threw it 52 times. Jeez,” Williams said.
His reaction seemed to imply that yes, that was a lot more than expected.
“I do whatever the team needs,” he continued. “So, if it’s 50 times, it’s 50 times. I can’t have the two turnovers with those 50 attempts. And then if it ends up being 10 times … and I complete nine of those 10, and we have 300 yards rushing and four touchdowns, I’m fully aware, fully ready to do whatever the team needs.
“And so, if it comes down to being 50 attempts and us slinging the ball around (or) if it comes down to being 10 attempts, it’s whatever the team needs, whatever the team needs to get the win.”
Justin Fields’ career high in pass attempts for the Bears was 40. Mitch Trubisky surpassed 50 pass attempts three times in his Bears tenure — and all three games were losses. Jay Cutler reached 50 attempts only once in his eight years with the Bears — going 29-for-52 for 307 yards and five interceptions in a 10-6 loss against the San Francisco 49ers during the 2019 season.
This is where this week’s five takeaways column begins.
1. Having a rookie quarterback throw 52 times feels like a poor strategy, but seeing Williams do it felt and looked different.
The identity of the Bears offense — or lack thereof — became a talking point last week. It usually does when nothing is clicking on offense. The same questions were once asked to Luke Getsy, Dowell Loggains, Marc Trestman and so on.
“It is brewing,” Williams said when asked about the offensive identity after the game. “I think it is a lot closer than it was the week before or weeks before. And I think us figuring that out is going to get this thing going.”
On Sunday, Williams showed that he doesn’t need a dominant run game to push the ball down the field. He didn’t accumulate his yardage in garbage time. The game was too close for that. If you take out his Hail Mary completion to DJ Moore to end the first half, Williams still finished with 319 passing yards. He surpassed 300 yards in his third NFL game; Fields did it only once in three seasons for the Bears.
“If our identity is going to be passing the ball, we should focus on that,” Moore said after the game. “And then the run game will hit because everybody is backing off.”
2. Let’s not blame Williams for not checking out of the Bears’ awful fourth-and-goal play at the line.
That’s on offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for designing and then calling the speed-option play in the first place, but also coach Matt Eberflus for not getting out of it.
The Bears practiced that play against a 6-1 defensive front, but the Colts came out with five defensive linemen and two linebackers. Eberflus should have been aware of that look and called a timeout. Waldron should have requested that he do it, too.
The play also needs to come in quicker for Williams. That’s also on Waldron.
Williams apparently repeated what he said to the media Sunday night later to Eberflus: he didn’t believe he had enough time to change the play. He broke the huddle with 10 seconds on the play clock and the ball was snapped with five.
“That’s just what it was,” Eberflus said. “We didn’t get that look we wanted.”
So call the timeout.
Eventually, Williams will see such looks in key situations and call for time himself. But he made his third career start Sunday. Eberflus and Waldron have been around much longer than that.
3. Roschon Johnson could be the spark the Bears need for their run game, but Waldron abandoned him against the Colts.
The Bears had an opportunity to get the run game going against the Colts, who were without defensive tackle DeForest Buckner and were just gashed by the Green Bay Packers for 261 rushing yards,
With that in mind, the Bears leaned into Roschon Johnson, their biggest back, early. But then Waldron stopped. Five of Johnson’s eight carries came in the first quarter.
Johnson may not be able to do everything that D’Andre Swift can do, but he is a physical, downhill runner. His play style could be what the Bears need right now in their zone scheme.
When asked about the run game Monday, Eberflus mentioned all three of the Bears’ running backs but started with Johnson.
“I do think that Roschon gets going here,” Eberflus said. “He did a really good job (Sunday) in terms of denting the pile forward and doing a good job that way.”
4. One of the most surprising things about this season thus far is how much the Bears seem to be relying on receiver DeAndre Carter.
This isn’t a criticism of Carter, who is in his seventh season. He apparently has done more than enough to earn the trust of Waldron and the offensive staff.
What’s surprising is that he’s been targeted 10 times over the last two games. Those passes could be intended for veteran Keenan Allen when he’s healthy. But Carter is also playing over two draft picks: Tyler Scott and Velus Jones Jr. Williams targeted Carter on his first interception against the Colts.
Carter was on the field for 67 percent of the Bears’ snaps against the Colts and 71 percent against the Houston Texans. One of Carter’s snaps in Indianapolis was a mismatch on the goal line.
On third-and-goal from the 1 in the second quarter, Carter, who is 5-foot-8 and 190 pounds, had to block defensive end Tyquan Lewis, who is 6-2 and 267 pounds. Lewis drove Carter right into running back Khalil Herbert to make the tackle.
“Shane and I watched the tape at 6:30 this morning and we talked that through,” Eberflus said. “Again, that’s got to be a better call and a better matchup there.”
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5. If the Bears are searching for positives from Week 3, No. 1 would be rookie receiver Rome Odunze’s breakout day against the Colts.
Moore said after the game that he was “more of a distraction” on some plays to help open things for the rookie. It worked. Odunze had six catches for 112 and a touchdown.
“The routes he runs, the trust and belief that I have in him, that’s why I threw that ball to him,” Williams said.
It included firing a pass into a tight window between two defenders down the left sideline that turned into an interception for cornerback Jaylon Jones. Odunze said that he’d attack it differently if given another chance.
“I should have body-caught it,” Odunze said. “I think trying to get my hands on the ball allowed the defender to deflect it and the corner was playing down so he was in the vicinity to be able to make the pick. That’s an unfortunate play, but I got to come down with that so that’s not possible.”
Williams’ first touchdown pass was Odunze’s first touchdown catch. As agreed upon, Odunze kept the ball.
“He’s going to have plenty in his career and a lot more than me,” Odunze. “He blessed me with his first one.”
(Top photo: Marc Lebryk / Imagn Images)
