Williams shines in Bears blowout win over Bills |
BUFFALO—At long last, the Caleb Williams era started at High Mark Stadium in Buffalo on Saturday as the NFL Preseason slate moves along. Although the sample size was small, it was mostly positive as a new era of Chicago Bears football is underway.
Looking to improve to 2-0 this preseason, the Bears went on the road for the first time to take on a Buffalo Bills squad with plenty of question marks heading into this season. While those question marks will be addressed at some point, this was one of those games where there were still more questions than answers as the Bears 27 second-half points, including 20 in the fourth quarter, to pull away from the Bills 33-6. Williams played the entire first quarter for the Bears, and although it wasn't perfect, he showed the potential that made him the No. 1 overall pick this season. Whether it was his legs that saw him rush for a 13-yard first down or his going 4-7 for 95 yards, Williams showed the fans more than many expected in his first NFL action. Caleb Williams' first completion is a laser for a first down More than half of his passing yards came on the first series, including a 42-yard gain to D'Andre Swift, which brought the ball down to the Bills 18-yard line. .@DAndreSwift goes for 42yds 💨 That drive eventually stalled out but with Cairo Santos banging home a 30-yard field goal, it was Chicago in front 3-0. Anytime you have a chance to score a touchdown early in the game, you have to capitalize, as the Bears had far too many drives end with field goals last season. Even with Williams showing off his full arsenal of skills, including a 26-year completion to Cole Kmet later in the first half, the Bears settled for two field goals as they led 6-0 after one. Despite Josh Allen starting the game for the Bills, their offense couldn't get much of anything going as he completed two of his three passes for 22 yards before giving way to former Chicago Bear Mitch Trubisky. Back in Buffalo for the second time in his career, Trubisky took over for Allen to begin the second quarter and put together the first scoring drive of the day for Buffalo. It didn't come easy, as Buffalo needed 18 plays and nearly eight minutes to get the job done, but after finding Kahlil Shakir for 19 yards, the Bills were knocking on the door. Eventually, Buffalo moved the ball inside the Bears' 20, but after going to Keon Coleman several times only to come up empty, the Bills had to settle for a Tyler Bass FG and pulled within 6-3. Those were the only points of the first half, as both teams combined for 60 yards of offense the rest of the way. Once the second half resumed, you started to see a much different-looking Bears offense led by Tyson Bagent at quarterback. After securing the backup role last season, Bagent is battling for the Bears backup job this season with Brett Rypien, and this battle will come down to the final week. With the Chicago defense forcing a quick three and out of the Bills to begin the second half, Bagent and the Bears got things rolling quickly, picking up their first touchdown of the game. It took eight plays to get it done but with Travis Homer coming away with a first down run followed by a 25-yard completion to Tommy Sweeney, the Bears offense was looking good as they were inside the Bills 20 again. One of the bigger stories of this past week was seeing Velus Jones Jr. take some snaps at RB. Given what he showed during the third quarter, including his four-yard TD to put the Bears in front 13-3, RB may be the move Jones needed to reach his potential. .@VelusJr runs it in for the TD 🙌 As they did earlier in the game when the Bears took a six-point lead, the Bills were forced to play from behind in the third as they found themselves down 10. Despite putting together another good drive midway through the fourth, the Bears defense was coming up huge as they forced another Bass field goal to pull the Bills within 13-6. Those were the game's final points for Buffalo, as it was all Chicago in the final 15 minutes, and they scored 20 unanswered points in that quarter. Six of those 20 points came on a pick-six, with Micah Baskerville coming with a massive interception and taking it the distance for the 41-yard touchdown to extend their lead to 19-6. .@Mikeyytb TO THE HOUSE Santos missed the extra point, but given how well the Bears defense played throughout, that wouldn't matter in the end. Chicago went on to score two more touchdowns later in the fourth, both coming from undrafted rookie Ian Wheeler, who scored from seven and eight yards out, respectively, to close out the Bears' 33-6 win. Ian Wheeler punches it in for his first NFL touchdown 👊 Ian Wheeler is HAVING A DAY! Williams led all QBs with 95 yards passing while Mitch Trubisky, 82 yards, and Austin Reed, 50 yards, had good games. Wheeler played just one quarter, but with 43 yards and two scores, he led all rushers. Jones added 34 yards in his first opportunity to play RB, and Khalil Herbert added 31 yards. Chicago also saw Swift and Dante Pettis lead the team in receiving, as Swift had 42 yards in one reception while Pettis added 34. Preseason W ✔️ pic.twitter.com/EFF4sgVq15 Hey Ian, how many TDs did you score today? pic.twitter.com/uoJvtNHIvt A good day, indeed pic.twitter.com/umWhLvItgW
📺: #CHIvsBUF on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/934KG1UBTw
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/ASlD1bVJmf
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/qPnN0Rw7Cv
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/Mg0xOU0V6W
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/VAg6O1laK6
2 TDs in the 4th for the rookie! pic.twitter.com/MspyBqCCzV
