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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff WriterDec 13, 2024, 06:00 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.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — It took Caleb Williams several seconds to find the right words to describe the feeling of being winless over the past 60 days.
“It’s … interesting, is the way I put it,” Williams said. “I’ve never had a streak like this of losing.”
The Chicago Bears have lost seven straight games, most recently by a 38-13 demolition at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers in Thomas Brown’s first game as interim head coach.
But these losses have not been the result of the Bears’ rookie quarterback tossing a bunch of interceptions. In fact, the Bears are the only team to go on a seven-game losing streak without committing multiple turnovers in any of their losses since 1933, when turnovers were first tracked, according to ESPN Research.
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This isn’t the first long stretch of losses for the Bears over the past three seasons. The Bears lost 14 straight — a franchise record — from Week 8 of the 2022 season through Week 4 of the following year. Dating back to high school, the most consecutive losses Williams has undured came during a three-game losing streak that ended his collegiate career at USC in 2023.
“So I ask questions,” Wiliams said. “I do understand that this is, one, my first time being a part of something like this, of losing and this streak going, so I ask questions to the guys that may have lost a bunch of games in a row like this or had losing seasons. I ask them questions because the more knowledge that I have prepares me for the future if this ever comes close to something like this again.”
In what has devolved into a lost season for the Bears (4-9), hope isn’t lost when it comes to Williams’ development, particularly after Chicago made Brown its offensive coordinator after firing Shane Waldron on Nov. 12. In one quarter of the season, from Weeks 11 to 14, Williams showed he can get back to demonstrating marginal growth the way he did during Chicago’s 4-2 start (he was the first QB selected No. 1 to win four of his first six starts).
Overall, Williams has become a better quarterback since Brown took over playcalling duties. Since Week 11, Williams has seen increases in QBR (from 40 to 70), completion percentage (61% to 66%), yards per attempt (6.1 to 6.9), touchdown-to-interception ratio (9-5 to 7-0), while his off-target percentage went from 23% to 18%.
Williams’ last interception came during the Bears’ last win, against Jacksonville in Week 6. Since then, the quarterback has thrown 255 consecutive pass attempts without an interception, the longest streak by a rookie in NFL history and the longest such streak by any Bears quarterback in the past 45 seasons
Brown sees several factors that led Williams to achieve that feat.
The Bears need rookie Caleb Williams to take fewer sacks, particularly in critical situations. Brooke Sutton/Getty Images
“I would say that [he is throwing a lot of passes] and also he’s not playing scared,” Brown said. “He’s ripping some footballs into tight windows. I think it’s probably even more impressive. It’s not like he’s sitting back there not taking an opportunity. [He’s] taking chances down the field.
“We always talk about trying to find ways to be aggressive, not reckless. There is a fine line between the two of them. I think his progression when it comes to understanding the offense operation-wise, but also just let it rip, has been positive for us.”
A trend that has coincided with Williams’ progress under Brown over the past four games has been Chicago’s increased use of motion. Through Week 10 with Waldron calling the offense, the Bears ranked 25th in use of pre-snap motion (49%). With Brown calling plays, Chicago ranks 13th since Week 11 (59%).
It’s a move that has benefited the offense with an uptick in yards per attempt (6.0 without motion to 6.6 with motion) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (9-to-4 to 7-to-1), and Williams’ off-target percentage dropped by 5%.
But as Williams scouts his own progress, the quarterback pointed to several areas he wants to address over the final quarter of his rookie campaign.
“There’s small mistakes that — maybe the snap point of certain motions and things like that — that I can get better at,” Williams said. “That means a lot to a defense if we’re having fast motion where we snap it, it means a lot to the other side of the ball. Being detailed, being on point, you can always get better and grow from there.”
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Williams has been sacked 56 times this season, which is tied with Tim Couch (1999) for the third most by a rookie quarterback since 1963, when QB sacks were first tracked. David Carr still owns the record for the most taken (76) in 2002, followed by Bryce Young’s 62 in 2023.
After three straight games against Green Bay, Minnesota and Detroit followed by a trip to San Francisco, Chicago begins its second round of divisional play Monday against the Vikings (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). Williams turned in a strong performance against the Vikings’ pressure in Week 12, recording his first multi-touchdown game against the blitz (9-of-12 for 128 yards, 2 TDs) and his fastest time to throw to that point (2.42 seconds).
As Chicago mounted a furious comeback in an eventual 30-27 loss, Williams led two scoring drive in the fourth quarter to force overtime. In the extra period, the rookie took a sack on second down that halted the Bears’ momentum for good.
In Chicago’s loss to the 49ers last week, Williams was sacked five times on third down. Of all the areas where Brown seeks to help Williams improve in his final four games, avoiding sacks on late downs, late in games and in critical situations is near the top.
“One, it’s obviously a known passing down,” Brown said. “It changes what you do from a defensive standpoint. It’s harder when it comes to not being able to mix it up between run and play-action keeper. They know it’s pass. Obviously the D-line can be more active when it comes to that.
“Myself trying to always find solutions and answers, obviously when it comes to depending on [down and distance], there are no quick fixes to trying to get 15, 16 yards at a time. It’s kind of a balance of the two of those.”
The Vikings are fourth in the league with 40 sacks, so the challenge will be significant.
