TIME FOR CALEB WILLIAMS TO WAKE UP THE BEARS BEFORE THEY DESTROY HIM
Here we go: Another quarterback in dire need was sacked seven times and hit 11 times in a loss to the Texans, and at this point, Williams must show leadership skills and help a dysfunctional franchise
Not to belabor the wreckage, but was a concussion doctor available? We wonder if Caleb Williams will become another crash in the ferocious, churning expressway of the NFL. He was sacked seven times on 11 hits Sunday night, amid constant pressure and blitzes that might have left him thinking about the Washington Commanders or staying back at USC or why he wasted black fingernails.
This is where he must remember his sensational past, even if he has forgotten. He must not be another Chicago Bear, a mushy and dysfunctional creature for too long in our lives. Their record is 1-1. He has not transformed the offense into a work of art or science or, for that matter, football. No one is protecting him on the line, which should have been his major question to the front office last spring. In the final minutes of a 19-13 loss to Houston, he looked like a totaled vehicle on the visiting sideline after he was mashed by Mario Edwards Jr.
“A little bruised up. Took a couple hits today,” Williams said. “We’ll get in the ice tub to make sure I’m iced up. And do everything to make sure my body is ready for practice and the next game.”
Might he need a cold Lake Michigan in a few weeks?
He was pressured 36 times on pass attempts. With two second-half interceptions and too many punts after three plays, Williams looked like every brutal quarterback who has stepped into Soldier Field and Wrigley Field and Staley Field. Williams didn’t even have an opportunity to look like Justin Fields from yesteryear. Now coached by a professional coach named Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, he has settled down and doesn’t make errors and is 2-0 with the Steelers.
So, the question becomes whether Williams has the gumption to speak up about what’s bothering him. Such as: Save my dead ass. A season ago, C.J. Stroud was 0-2 with the Texans and demanded to know, “Where my leaders at? I need some leaders. Where they at?’’ If he could speak brashly as a 21-year-old rookie, why not Williams? Tell me he isn’t becoming passive in the speech therapy of Matt Eberflus, who never has won as an NFL head coach. Tell me he isn’t listening too much to Ryan Poles, who never has won as an NFL general manager. Tell me he isn’t becoming McCaskey-ied. The Bears will not win unless he barks, and already, Green Bay has won as Malik Willis watched a teammate barfing while Minnesota is 2-0 with Sam Darnold. They could be the worst team in the division.
Wake up the damned Bears, kid. Keenan Allen was in his face on the sideline, in civvies. What I want from Williams is a dose of Stroud or Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers when he once arrived. Until then, until he recognizes he won the Heisman Trophy and said his ambition is “immortality,” he will disappoint as a rookie. My concern is that the impairment of the Bears will rub off on their prize. Do they think he’s too immature? Was Stroud? He came out of Ohio State after failing the S2 cognitive test, in which he scored 18 of 100 — proving it was garbage when he pieced together one of the great first seasons in league history. He needed only two games to demand help. The Bears never have had a passer throw for 4,000 yards or 30 touchdowns in a season. Williams is their 45th starting QB since 1986.
Don’t ask who is No. 46. “Just keep going. It’s not going to be easy,” Stroud told Williams afterward. “You got picked at one and for a reason, because they trust in you and they believe in you.”
Said Williams, in pain: “Yeah, I think, um. Just kind of taking in the moment. Trying to figure out what I need to get better at. Trying to figure out what areas was I off, and what areas were we off to have the outcome we had. It’s not winning the day. That was the process after the game. Obviously, we’re feeling it sucks to lose.”
What sucks? “Not coming out with a win. Not executing when we needed to as a team. Um, myself, throwing the two interceptions, not something I’ve done and not something I do is turn the ball over. It’s not really my thing,” he said. “Those things I’m most frustrated about. We didn’t execute the way we needed to. We’re gonna keep getting better. Everything is about the response.”
Maybe hearing the Texans will enliven him. “He was slow getting back to the huddle and began panicking,” Edwards said.
“Just keep chopping wood,” defensive end Will Anderson Jr. said. “Just wanted to put pressure in his face.”
And linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who will be fined after hitting Roschon Johnson: “Some crazy things out there. I saw orange and was trying to protect myself.”
It’s time to lead the Bears after he watched Stroud continue to electrify us as the performer we’d take if Mahomes was swallowed by a Taylor Swift lyric, making enough marvelous moves to throw for 260 yards and a touchdown. Eberflus is 15 games away from his possible dismissal, which would follow Matt Nagy, John Fox, Marc Trestman and Lovie Smith in just a dozen years. The offensive coordinator is Shane Waldron, who is having less success with Williams than Luke Getsy — who won in Baltimore with Las Vegas, as Gardner Minshew quarterbacked Sunday — did with Fields.
“We struggle to keep the ball moving,” receiver DJ Moore said.
If the Bears are cold and finish with a losing record, I don’t care if Eberflus has a fancy lakefront home. He will be gone, which might lead Williams — under contract for three more seasons — to demand Lincoln Riley from USC or another offensive head coach. Declared as a wonderful quarterbacking find in this generation, he will have influence with chairman George McCaskey and Poles. Remember when Williams sent a text to new punter Tory Taylor?
“Hey, you’re not going to punt too much here,” he said.
Delete.
Win now, I would suggest. Can we conduct offensive-line tryouts in a bar? They play in Indianapolis on Sunday, a winnable game against the 0-2 Colts. Then they’re at home against the 0-2 Los Angeles Rams and the league’s worst team, the Carolina Panthers. The Bears don’t play the NFC North gang until Nov. 17. But they have to protect the quarterback. Otherwise, say hello to Tyson Bagent … and Austin Reed.
“You have to play well around a rookie quarterback,” Eberflus said.
He wasn’t referring to the Texans last season.
At least they are .500. In Tennessee, coach Brian Callahan saw turnover-trashed Will Levis try to roll the ball to a running back and said, “Hey, what the f— are you doing?” In New York, coach Brian Daboll smashed his headset. The Dallas Cowboys collapsed defensively against rejuvenated New Orleans. The Ravens are 0-2. Yet there were the Packers, with backup Willis as Jordan Love sat. What did center Josh Myers do?
“I asked Malik why he didn't throw the ball on third down, and he told me that Josh threw up on the ball,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I was like, 'That's the first time I've ever heard that.' Matter of fact, the official came over to me, Shawn (Hochuli) came over to me and said, 'We saw your center throwing up on the ball, do you want us to take him out next time?' I said, ‘Absolutely, please do that.’ Because you're talking about a critical situation, and it's third down, and I've never had a throw with vomit on a football. I think Malik probably didn't appreciate that.”
Malik Willis won. Caleb Williams lost and ranks very low in statistical data. At some point, we might ask if Poles was wrong not to draft Stroud in 2023. But would it have mattered? Aren’t the Bears always the Bears?
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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.