Williams on eighth straight loss: "It’s been frustrating and encouraging" |
CHICAGO—It has to be difficult to have an eight-game losing streak when you are so accustomed to winning, like rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. With Chicago’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football, they have now lost eight straight.
Williams is an optimist, and while he is still incredibly frustrated, he said after the game that he is also encouraged by this team's fight. “It’s been frustrating and encouraging. I would say the frustrating part is obviously we (are) on (an eight) game losing streak and that’s (new) to me. I haven’t experienced anything like this. So, that’s the frustrating part. The encouraging part is how much we fight as a team. The encouraging part is us as a team being able to go through, and myself included, being able to go through all of what’s happened this year,” Williams said. “Me not playing well in the beginning of the season and feeling like I was seeing it well and then being able to find ways to keep growing, keep progressing through those times that I was frustrated then and coaches getting fired and all of this stuff that’s going on, four and ten right now. So, being able to wake up, be consistent, do that everyday with how it’s been going is encouraging for me. It’s encouraging for this team, and we got to keep going. But, it’s been encouraging but also frustrating for myself.” Chicago’s loss to the Vikings marks the third straight game the Bears have not scored in the first half. That is never going to be a winning recipe. Chicago is 0-5 when they do not score in the first half this season; four losses have come during the eight-game losing streak. The Bears are particularly slow in the first quarter as they only have two touchdowns in the first quarter all season. Conversely, they have 12 touchdowns in the fourth quarter. “We just got to find ways to be efficient in the first half, find ways to keep the ball moving, find ways to simply put points on the board,” Williams said. “It’s tough when the other team’s scoring in the first half, and you’re not scoring, and you got to come out (in the) second half and have these comeback games, and you put pressure on the offense and the defense to hold them to where they’re at and you got to go now (and) score. So, just playing efficient football, all of us respecting the game and what it takes to win.” Perhaps more concerning than the lack of first-half efficiency is that the Bears keep finding bizarre ways to hurt themselves. From a failed Hail Mary defense to a blocked field goal and running out of time against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, Chicago has found just about every way to lose as possible. Yet, in that stretch, they had not nullified a touchdown because a player did not report as eligible to the officials. That was accomplished against the Vikings when Doug Kramer did not report to the referees as eligible. This nullified D'Andre Swift's touchdown run, which would have cut Minnesota’s lead to one possession. The Bears, on that drive, settled for a field goal on that dot and did not score a touchdown until the fourth quarter. “I believe right in that moment I heard (Kramer) say that he reported and when he was on the field and (the) ref didn’t see it and so, having self-inflicting wounds right there on that touchdown and then we get backed up, we score again and have another self-inflicting wound. It’s challenging because scoring in this league is tough,” Williams said. “Winning games is tough, and you got to score to be able to win, and so, taking those points off the board, I think it (obviously) hurt us in that moment because that was such a big moment for us, and we ended up having to settle. So, we got to get better. We got to not have self-inflicted wounds whether it’s penalties and face masks or illegal substitutions and things like that or whatever the case may be. We can’t have those because of how hard it is to win games and score.” In the two games since Thomas Brown took over as interim head coach, the Bears have lost by a combined 43 points. This has led to concerns about Brown's performance as interim head coach. However, Williams stated that Brown is still getting the plays in when he needs to; the lack of production results from poor execution by the players. “I think he’s still getting the plays in fast. I think he’s still calling the same plays that he would have called or calling it the same way. I think we just got to go out there and execute. I think (there’s) a few times where even myself didn’t execute whether it was a motion, whether it was (the) timing of the play,” Williams said. “I know I had two today where I kind of messed up the time of the play, which is frustrating. But, I think we just got to go out there and execute. I think we got to be better overall, just all of us - players, coaches. And then from there, we got to find ways to win the game and be efficient on offense.”
