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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff WriterNov 25, 2024, 06:15 AM ET
- Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.
CHICAGO — Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams heard the directive from his offensive coordinator loud and clear.
“Go be Superman,” Thomas Brown told Williams after Chicago got the ball back with 1:47 to play in the fourth quarter Sunday while trailing the Minnesota Vikings by 11.
Williams sparked a furious rally with two scoring drives that forced overtime. The quarterback orchestrated an eight-play, 40-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Keenan Allen. Williams followed with a successful 2-point conversion pass to DJ Moore to put Chicago down by three.
After the Bears successfully recovered Cairo Santos‘ onside kick, Williams led another scoring drive, capped off by Santos’ 48-yard field goal to send the game to overtime at 27-27.
Though a mishap on Chicago’s lone drive of OT resulted in Williams taking a sack, followed by the Bears being penalized for a delay of game, the gutsy throws and execution displayed by the No. 1 overall pick in crunch time were not lost in the 30-27 defeat.
“True grit,” coach Matt Ebeflus said. “Inspiring to the whole football team. Just really good execution.
This throw by Caleb Williams
: #MINvsCHI on FOX
: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/bdDgz6r0Bx— NFL (@NFL) November 24, 2024
“He’s growing in front of our eyes. Today was a really good growth for him to be able to go out there and execute the way he did with a 103 passer rating. Get those drives going at the end to put us in position to win the game.”
In his 11th start, Williams set a franchise rookie passing record when he hit Moore on a 37-yard screen pass in the third quarter. The record was set by Mitchell Trubisky in 2017 (2,193 yards). Williams has 2,356 yards through 11 games and is on pace to finish the season with 3,641 passing yards, which would be 197 yards shy of the single-season franchise record set by Erik Kramer in 1995.
After a four-week drought without a passing touchdown, Williams threw two Sunday while completing 32 of 47 passes for 340 yards without a turnover.
Williams has made considerable improvement since the Bears fired Shane Waldron and promoted Brown to offensive coordinator in Week 11. In two games since the switch, Williams’ completion percentage has increased from 61% (Weeks 1-9) to 71%, his yards per attempt jumped from 6.1 to 7.3, his pressure percentage has been cut nearly in half (34% to 18%) and his average pass time has dropped from 2.90 seconds to 2.42 seconds.
“He has a certain aura to him that he just allows you to play free,” Williams said. “He knows what he wants. You know he knows what he wants. Whether it’s checks, alerts, all of that, we still have a bunch of those, all these different things.
“I think like last game, throughout the whole game, talking to me, communicating to me. When it gets to two-minute, like today end of the game, before OT, now it’s time to go be Superman, do all those different things that I can do.”
Williams was particularly effective against one of the top defenses in the NFL. Being decisive was the key for the quarterback to beat Minnesota’s aggressive blitz. Entering Week 12, opposing quarterbacks averaged a 79.4 passer rating against the Vikings defense
Williams finished with a 103.1 rating and recorded his first multi-passing TD game against the blitz.
“He did an amazing job [against the blitz],” right tackle Darnell Wright said. “He knows there’s certain plays where he’s hot and he knows he’s hot. If they bring eight and we have seven, he has to get the ball out. If they bring seven and we have six, he has to get the ball out.
“He did a good ass job this game, just knowing when he was hot, knowing when he had to get the ball out.”
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After starting 4-2, Chicago (4-7, 0-2) has lost five straight and has its third straight NFC North game Thursday against Detroit. Within each of the Bears’ division losses to Green Bay and Minnesota, Williams has proved capable of steering his rookie development back on track.
“His confidence is through the roof,” Moore said. “He’s understanding all the game plans through and through, so to see him go out there and just be able to play quarterback like he wants to is amazing to see.”
After the game, Williams shared an embrace with Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell. The strides made by the rookie quarterback weren’t just noticeable to Williams’ teammates. The quarterback categorized O’Connell’s words of encouragement as “important” to hear.
For O’Connell, what he saw in Week 12 from the quarterback who was the draw of the entire league during the 2024 draft is just the beginning of the play he expects the Vikings to face on a twice-yearly basis for many years.
“I’ve known Caleb for a long time, and I think the world of him,” O’Connell said. “He just continues to get better and better. You can see it when he starts creating off schedule and that change of direction and athleticism, and we had him dead to rights a couple times and he gets out and makes huge plays.
“It’s going to be a challenge. We’re going to have to play as consistently as possible and disciplined as possible against him as he continues to grow. I look forward to the challenge of competing against him because he’s going to be a really good player.”
