Bears News: Caleb Williams on first win of the season, growing chemistry with Burden III

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 2 hours ago

CHICAGO - Head coach Ben Johnson was critical of Chicago’s practice habits earlier in the week prior to the Bears’ game against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Bears seemed to get the message and turned things around, which was reflected on the field against Dallas dominantly.

“I think it starts with practice and how consistent we were in practice,” quarterback Caleb Williams said. “The preparation, when we’re actually between the white lines and going out there competing versus each other and having these tough practices and it builds the confidence for us to be able to go out there and have a game like we had today. So, the consistency and things like that, that becomes a thing when you have a day like today and then you can come back and do it again and again (and) again. So, it’s something that we have to work on and keep striving for everyday in practice and obviously we get out here in the game.”

Prior to Chicago’s game against Dallas, they had lost 12 of their last 13 games dating back to last season. That is not the kind of performance that breeds confidence and some of the same problems from those games last season were showing up. However, the Bears seemed to have corrected some of those things, including protection on the offensive line.

While it was not perfect, this game was the first time in Williams’ career that he was not sacked in a game.

“I think it just builds confidence within the whole team, being able to see offense, defense, offense being able to score how many points we scored and then defense being able to get (as) many turnovers as they had and that’s such an explosive offense as y’all know and then also just being able to, on special teams, stop their guy number nine (Kavonte Turpin). He’s one of the most explosive players in that position,” Williams said. “So, I think in all three phases, I think it builds confidence for us, builds confidence for us as a team and as an organization to be able to go out there and win these games and I feel confident about who we got on this field.”

This game also marked the first time since Week 6 of last season against the Jacksonville Jaguars that Chicago’s offense had put up at least 30 points. The Jaguars game last season was also the only other time Williams has thrown four touchdowns in a single game.

One of his touchdowns against Dallas was on a 19-play, 76-yard drive that took nearly 10 minutes off the clock.

“That was probably my longest drive I’ve maybe had, maybe 20 may be my longest, but it was tiring,” Williams said. “I was hoping that he would call a pass play so we could try and go score and end the drive. But, we end up running the ball (well), getting that going, and then obviously being able to find a strike right there and score. So, it was awesome.”

If there was one criticism of Chicago’s offense coming out of this game, it would be their run offense. On that 19-play drive, they had 29 rushing yards with five different players having at least one rushing attempt. On all of Chicago’s other drives combined, they had 58 rushing yards; in other words, a third of their rushing yards came on one drive.

One opportunity to get the run game going more would be to give the ball to rookie receiver Luther Burden III more often. He had one rushing attempt that went for seven yards in addition to three catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.

The touchdown came on what might have been the best play of the game when Chicago ran the flea flicker and Williams connected with Burden III down the field for the score.

“We always want to be able to get our guys the ball and today, I think Luther showed up big-time for us. He’s continuing to grow,” Williams said. “We’re excited for him and his growth and I think being able to get him the ball builds a lot of confidence for him, a lot of trust between us and the coaches and myself as his QB and we’re going to keep growing and he’s going to be a big playmaker for us.”