CALEB WILLIAMS REMINDS THE BEARS OF HIS GREATNESS — WHO’S THE NEXT COACH?
The McCaskeys and the front office should listen to the quarterback, who almost pulled off a miracle win Sunday, if he wants Lincoln Riley — as profiled in Los Angeles — as his next sideline leader
This was a victory for Caleb Williams, the score aside, after he turned fear and ill will into an adventure. He ignored another vertically challenged block from Cairo Santos’ foot and a feeble performance by Matt Eberflus’ defense. Every sad soul in Chicago assumed the game was finished, with Minnesota leading 27-16 and 1:56 remaining, while Williams pumped both his fists and spoke quickly to his teammates.
A beautiful skyline also thought the same Sunday, as did the gray whiskers on the head coach’s sunken face, as did people in the Fox Sports booth who couldn’t wait to advertise another “John Madden Thanksgiving.” The Vikings were headed to another postseason. The Bears were headed to another poor season, wondering how DeAndre Carter waved his arms on a punt return, let the football hit him on the thigh in a horrid turnover, then pulled a cap over his head so no one in the city would recognize him.
“That’s on me. I let the team down today,” Carter said.
But the quarterback who has won honors of late — the Heisman Trophy, in one of the memorable seasons in college history — refused to surrender when the Bears only have lost and lost. His upbeat mood turned into a touchdown to Keenan Allen, then a two-point conversion to DJ Moore, and after Santos’ onside kick was recovered, Williams thrust his arms and screamed even louder before finding Moore at the opponents’ 30-yard line. With four seconds left, in came the beleaguered kicker to finally make his clutch field goal and create overtime with a 27-27 tie.
The inevitable seventh loss of the season, sure to end with Eberflus’ dismissal, only reminded us that Williams should be rescued and carries a bright NFL future. Anyone who didn’t think so missed how he was grasped afterward by Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who uttered friendly remarks at midfield after the 30-27 finish. His predecessor at USC, Sam Darnold, also wished him well.
“His message was just to keep going. A hell of a player. Keep going. Way to fight,” Williams said of O’Connell. “It sucks that I’ve got to go against him for a while, or that he has to go against me for a while. When you get a guy like him — his offense and head coaching, I have a few old teammates who talk about him, and they love him. When somebody comes over to you, those were encouraging words.”
It’s amazing Williams hasn’t been hospitalized as he continues to scramble away from defenders who push past a shaken line. Without much of a running game, he threw for 340 yards, two touchdowns and a 104.1 passer rating. Even the emotionally drowning fans at Soldier Field were left to celebrate wildly when he turned 1:56 into Caleb Time. He credits the new offensive coordinator, Thomas Brown, who told him, “Go be Superman. He has a certain aura that allows you just to play free.”
Is Brown possibly the next head coach? Or will the Bears go elsewhere when it’s time to bid farewell to Eberflus and his 14-31 record? The sideline was in chaos, as usual, when the coach mismanaged a third-quarter call that led to Santos erroneously trotting out for a field goal. What’s next, ‘Flus?
Sometime soon, the McCaskeys and the front office should realize they have a special presence and leader. What comes next is a coaching change. In that context, they need to rely on Williams instead of referring to him as “a rookie QB,’’ as general manager Ryan Poles did in a pregame interview. Those in the Midwest didn’t notice the other day when the Los Angeles Times interviewed NFL and college personnel about Lincoln Riley’s future. He is having challenging times in the new Big Ten, where USC is 6-5 as Ohio State and Oregon play for the league championship. But Williams mentioned last week that he speaks to Riley often for confidence breeding. Maybe it wasn’t a public disclosure.
But if George McCaskey, Kevin Warren and Poles come to Williams about a new coach in a few weeks, does anyone think he’d say no to Riley? He’s the man who brought him to Oklahoma. He’s the one who took him to USC and let him cash in with multiple millions in Hollywood NIL money. He’s the one who led him to the Heisman, joining Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield in his cast-bronze stable. What did Riley say over the phone when he was checking in?
“You keep going, my mindset for about everything,” Williams said. “Something he told me my freshman year, when I wasn’t starting, and he told me to keep going. I didn’t know what those two words meant. I use those words to this day. That’s all we can do. That’s all this team can do.”
The Times story quoted several inside observers who wondered about a renewed teaming. “Who would you rather put with Caleb Williams than Lincoln Riley?” said CBS analyst Rick Neuheisel. “If the Bears make a move on Eberflus, why wouldn’t you want to put Caleb with a guy who made him that comfortable?”
The writer, Sam Farmer, also quoted an NFC executive. “If you’re Chicago, I think you have to at least consider it,” he said. “Behind the scenes you can definitely make a call and say, 'Hey, would there be interest?’ You’ll do that with Lincoln.” He also suggested a call to Kliff Kingsbury, another Williams soldier, but he was rejected by Eberflus for an offensive coordinator’s position that went to Shane Waldron. That was the mistake that shredded Eberflus after Waldron’s firing, yet Kingsbury will have other opportunities to resume as an NFL head coach and won’t consider Chicago. Why? He was bounced. The Bears might like him at a cheaper salary than Riley, who makes more than $10 million a year at USC. But at this point, if the McCaskeys have any interest in competing instead of finishing in last place, they need to spend for Williams.
Bill Belichick isn’t coming, based on his broadcasted rip jobs of Poles. Ben Johnson will have interest from better franchises. The Land of Lincoln could be the Land of Riley.
Only Pete Carroll, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer have won Super Bowls and the national championship in college football. Jim Harbaugh could be next. Despite woes at USC, Riley thinks in broader terms. Does he want an NFL job? “I know right now, there are things I want to do,” he said last year. “I don’t want to have regrets when I’m done, at the end of my life. I do think about that. I just don’t want to have regrets, especially with anything that has to do with my family. It’s hard not to consider the possibility of starting over in life.”
One call from Chicago could change his mind. “Obviously, a very disappointing loss,” Eberflus said. “I told them how proud I was that they stayed together, the grind and the determination they had to make that an overtime game.”
Thank Caleb Williams. For the first time, he separated himself from the muck. Please help him, Halas Hall, before the years pass and he wants to leave.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.