Williams on his injury: "Dude grabbed my ankle and gator rolled" |
TEMPE, A.Z. - Something about playing on the road does not work for this team. After the hail mary loss to the Commanders on Oct. 27, Chicago has put themselves in a deeper hole in the division after their fourth loss of the season against the Arizona Cardinals.
Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams attributed the loss partly to Chicago’s mentality earlier in the week coming off of that loss to the Commanders. “I think early on (in) the week, I think we could have done better overall of bouncing back after that. I know it’s a tough loss, tough regardless of who you are in the facility - if you were out there making plays or if you’re making decisions up top and so, being better at that, understanding that we have many more games left after that,” Williams said. “(We’ve) been able to be one, be a family and move on from that and have the right leaders, which we do. We have the right guys to do things like that, which is (to) bounce back from something like that and we got to do it this week.” For the first time in a long time, Chicago seemed to have hope during its three-game winning streak against the Los Angeles Rams, Carolina Panthers, and Jacksonville Jaguars. The win against the Jaguars in London was especially promising, as Williams threw four passing touchdowns; he has not thrown one since. For the first time all season, the Bears failed to score a touchdown in their 20-point loss to the Cardinals. It seems the offense has taken a step back, although Williams does not see it that way. “I wouldn’t say (we’ve) taken a step back. Last week, we did a couple good things towards the end of the game. Obviously, we have to get that going early on. But, we’re having these flashes and we got to find a way to keep the light on,” Williams said. “Expectations of myself are always going to be here. They’re still high. We still have nine games and (so), it’s going to keep being high every game we go into. We just got to figure out what’s the next step, got to figure out how to get the win this next week. This game’s over. Can’t change this game, but we definitely can change the future.” With the game clearly out of reach for the Bears, the Cardinals pulled their starting quarterback out on their final drive. Therefore, there were questions as to why Chicago opted to leave Williams in the game. This question is being asked more because Williams tweaked his ankle on Chicago’s final drive, although he said that he was okay. “I landed wrong and just kind of tweaked it and then the last play, the dude grabbed my ankle and gator rolled and tried to get off of it because when you stay on it, that’s when bad stuff starts to happen and breaks and all of that,” Williams said. “So, tried to just let my body go so I could just fall and roll with him.” Playing at home seems to be a lot better for Chicago as a whole versus playing on the road. The Bears have not lost a home game all season and have the chance to keep that going when they face the New England Patriots this coming Sunday (Noon / FOX). New England is coming off a close loss to the Tennessee Titans, who the Bears defeated in their season opener at Soldier Field.
