Caleb Williams offers brutally honest review after Bears’ Week 7 win over Saints

The Chicago Bears improved their record to 4-2 after an impressive defensive performance against the New Orleans Saints. The Bears won, 26-14, and increased their winning streak to four games.

But let’s be honest: Bears fans still have a somewhat empty feeling after the victory. Quarterback Caleb Williams wasn’t great. In fact, the Bears won the game in spite of him, which, sadly, is a feeling Bears Nation is all too familiar with.

Fortunately, Williams has self-awareness. And he knows that he must improve his level of play for this team to reach its ultimate goal of being a legitimate contender for the Super Bowl.

He also issued a warning to the rest of the NFL.

“We’re going to figure this out,” Williams said after the game. “I’m going to figure it out. When we start hitting on those cylinders where we start having some of these explosive plays, especially when the play breaks and it turns into our second play, it’s going to be real devastating to the other side. We’re going to figure it out. I’m going to figure it out.”

Bears fans are probably reading that quote with a pained stare. We’ve been here before; the never-ending quest to find answers for why the passing game isn’t working.

It happened with Matt Nagy, who was charged with unlocking Mitch Trubisky and then Justin Fields. It happened with Matt Eberflus, who was charged with unlocking Justin Fields and then Caleb Williams.

Now, it’s up to Ben Johnson to cure Bears fans’ upset stomachs.

“We’ll see what were the reasons why, and what can we do better,” Johnson said. “The broken-down plays in general through six games, I don’t think it’s given us the yardage that we would like.”

As for that yardage? Williams fell behind the pace in his chase for 4,000 passing yards. He also fell behind the pace he needs maintain to break Erik Kramer’s single-season Bears’ passing record.

But, stats don’t matter (right now). Cleaning up the little things — the frustrating misses — are what count the most.

Caleb Williams confident he has the solution to his struggles

“It just comes down to the basics,” Williams said. “Feet, eyes, delivering a good ball to the guys, and then it comes down to before, communication and making sure everybody is on the same page and we’re rolling off the ball.”

If the basics were really the basics, shouldn’t it look cleaner by now?

“Guys got open, and I think I missed,” he said. “That’s what it boils down to.”

Williams finished Week 7 completing 15-of-26 passes for 172 yards and an interception. His passer rating — 61.7 — was the lowest of his season.

“I would say I was hopeful that by Game 6 we would play cleaner football than that,” Johnson said.

Here’s the good news: Caleb Williams is holding himself accountable. The Bears are holding Williams accountable. Mediocre –or worse — QB play isn’t acceptable in Chicago anymore, even after a win.

There’s even more good news. This Bears team is suddenly one that can overcome a game that Williams would like to have back. And, remember: Williams delivered high-level performances during this four-game winning streak that made up for a rough stretch of defensive performances.

“There are things that I can be better at,” Williams said. “There are things that I’m going to be better at. There are things that weren’t hitting today, and you just have those days sometimes. It’s nice that we have a defense, we have a special teams, a punter, kicker, that can put us ahead, that can help us win games, a run game that can control the game. We get this figured out on my side, we’ll be putting up a lot of points and be very dangerous.”

Eventually, the Chicago Bears will — as Williams put it — hit on all cylinders. And when that happens, hopefully, his prediction will come true, and the rest of the NFL will have a monster-sized problem.

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