It’s time to exhale regarding Caleb Williams and the folks who run the Chicago Bears.
Williams has better quarterback ability than former Bears starter Justin Fields, and it’s starting to show up in bold strokes. That’s a topic because when Fields showed growth last month with the Steelers some media folks suggested the Bears should have kept Fields and invested the capital that went into Williams into Fields.
Overblown as well, though not devoid of merit, was the skepticism that Bears leaders would fail Williams.
The unfolding reality, though subject to the schedule’s looming headwinds, is that football lovers should add the Bears to their list of teams to watch. Williams played the best game of his young NFL career in Sunday’s 35-16 rout of the shoddy Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
Jacksonville’s D was as fake as the grass that America’s top sports league has foisted upon England, but the 4-2 Bears — the Bears! — are playing entertaining football behind Williams, former San Diego Chargers receiver Keenan Allen and coach Matt Eberflus’ opportunistic defense.
At 21, Williams looks like he’ll become a star if he can avoid severe injury and inevitable bad games.
He’s cycling through reads faster than he did last month. He threw four touchdown passes Sunday, giving him six in the past two games.
Making better decisions on when to scramble or throw the ball away, he ripped the Jaguars for 56 rushing yards on just four carries.
As impressive as Commanders QB Jayden Daniels has been, don’t make the mistake of second-guessing the Bears for drafting Williams first overall.
Already, he’s showing a fast pass release and the ability to pinpoint lasers over the middle of the field in traffic, an observation supported by advanced stats.
The 6-foot-1 USC alum’s agility and breakaway speed have translated adequately to the NFL.
Though he’s taken a scary number of crunching hits — including several in the first quarter Sunday — the 21-year-old has held up so far.
The Bears drew widespread criticism in September for not investing enough in the ground game in support of Williams. The criticism from Bill Belichick and others was deserved, but as the Bears are showing, maybe it’s overstated. They’ve rushed for 131, 128 and 154 yards the past three games.
No-frills rushes by DeAndre Swift (91 yards) took heat off Williams and tamed Jacksonsville’s base pass rush.
From there, coordinator Shane Waldron and players threw a party against the Jags’ poor pass D.
It was the best game yet in a Bears uniform for Allen, who began his NFL career in San Diego 11 years ago.
Allen, 32, caught two touchdown passes. He ran an A+ seam route against two defenders, including Otay Ranch High School alum Devin Lloyd, and Williams fit a dart onto Allen’s back shoulder. The two connected for the second TD on a fade route after Allen defeated overmatched Montaric Brown.
Allen has overcome an injury and new-team challenges to repay the Bears for sending Jim Harbaugh a fourth-round pick for him. Trailing only DeAndre Hopkins and Travis Kelce for career receptions by an active player, the old man still draws multiple defenders.
Caveat: the Bears have yet to play within their division, the NFL-best NFC North.
But Williams has joined a franchise that has more wherewithal to support him than is typical for a team drafting first overall. That’s exciting.
Harbaugh outcoached Payton
Jim Harbaugh‘s team was well-prepared out of the bye week, leading to the Chargers’ 23-16 road victory over Sean Payton‘s Broncos.
Harbaugh, good at managing not just games but a season, broke tendency by unleashing a pass-happy offense in the first half after L.A. (3-2) brought in the league’s second-highest rush percentage (53.0). Justin Herbert‘s conversions on third-and-long hurt Denver.
Harbaugh leaned on assistant coach Marc Trestman, 68. His expertise is passing designs.
Sounding off
• Payton sought the Chargers job a year before it went to Harbaugh, a fellow 60-year-old/QB sensei.
• Broncos rookie Bo Nix is escaping defenders more now than as a pocket-bound QB with the Oregon Ducks.
• The Shamrock Chargers benefited from NFL-best-CB Patrick Surtain‘s concussion early on in Sunday’s game. Smartly, they continued to throw downfield.
• Linebacker Denzel Perryman and rookie corners played well for a Chargers D that’s allowed 20 points or fewer in all five games. Perryman, who had a pivotal stop of receiver Marvin Mims Jr., began his NFL career in San Diego nine years ago.
+ A-plus game visuals — excellent grass field, crisp uniforms.
+ It almost never seems to fail that, no matter how much the Broncos may struggle in their mile-high home, the fourth quarter is interesting. A trend-starter in 1961, the first San Diego Chargers beat the Broncos by 33 points at Balboa Stadium, went into Denver as a 20-point favorite but trailed in the fourth quarter before eking out the win on Jack Kemp’s TD pass to Bob Scarpitto.
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