Williams on his performance against Titans, building bonds with Scott and Carter |
CHICAGO—The numbers may not have been record-breakingly good or even just average, but rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has his first win as an NFL quarterback after the Chicago defense dominated the Tennessee Titans in the second half to give the Bears the 24-17 victory.
Even though he is not satisfied with his performance, it was still super exciting for it to really hit that he won his first game in the league. “You woke up and you realized that you won your first game in the NFL,” Williams said. “Regardless of how you felt of your performance, we won the first game and felt super excited about not necessarily how I actually performed, but being able to come out with that win and being able to help lead these guys to that win and so, feels good, really excited, it builds confidence (when) you come out and do that. Like I said, we’re building on the small things, making sure we get the small things down so we can go dominate and have fun doing it when we get out there in the field as a team, as a collective.” It has not been fun for Chicago fans to watch their quarterbacks over the years. Jay Cutler is regarded by many as being the Bears’ top quarterback in franchise history, a testament to the quality of quarterbacks this storied franchise has had. That history is part of why it was so refreshing to hear Williams specifically pinpoint what he was doing wrong in his first game against the Tennessee Titans. Identifying exactly what was going wrong allowed him to correct it for the second game of his NFL career, facing the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football this coming Sunday (7:20 p.m. / NBC). “Sometimes I rush my drop (a) little bit not needing to. One specific route that I can think of is (rookie receiver) Rome (Odunze. (I) I think it was a 10-yard route right over the ball, and I rushed my drop, and then I tried to juice it in there a little bit and missed. I didn’t need to, just trying to hurry up and get the ball to him, get in his hands as fast as possible so he can make magic and do what he does, and so, just making sure, trusting the drop, trusting the reads and things like that and getting through them,” Williams said. “I’d say that’s probably the biggest thing that I’m focused on, and my finishes on my play fakes or anything like that.” Williams also took positive things from this experience. He read the defense well, got the ball where it needed to be on many plays, and did not put the ball in danger. The Heisman winner also acknowledges that understanding how NFL defenses operate is not easy, but he believes he is making progress and continues to grow. “They got good players on the other side. They’re going to make plays, like a few battled balls that we had. Going to (the) right spot, throwing the right shoulder, all these other things, not trying to throw it over back or all these other things that sometimes, a player is going to get his arm up, bat it down,” Williams said. “So, I think having an understanding of those (things) is really important to keep growing and progressing and not to lose faith where it’s the play, the team, yourself, offense, run, whatever the case may be, keep that confidence and understand that we obviously didn’t play as (well) as we wanted to and we came out 24-17, Chicago Bears win.” Things were a little different in practice on Wednesday because Odunze and six-time Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen were unable to participate because of injuries. For Allen, this sounded more like a rest day while there is serious concern that Odunze will not be available against Houston. Because of that, Williams had more reps with Tyler Scott and DeAndre Carter. “They’re all different in their own aspects, but that’s why we have so many reps and things like that throughout training camp. We’re going to get a bunch of reps with a bunch of different guys (Wednesday),” Williams said. “Obviously, Keenan’s out, not practicing (Wednesday). So, we’re going to get reps with some other guys and things like that and keep building that trust and belief and bond. We’ve been building that since I got here.”
