Bears News: Williams reacts to offensive issues, missed red zone opportunities

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 3 hours ago

BALTIMORE - For the first time since his second and third career games in the NFL, quarterback Caleb Williams has back-to-back games with an interception en route to Chicago’s 30-16 loss against the Baltimore Ravens.

The interception came at the worst time possible for the Bears. Chicago had just gotten a touchdown and forced a punt from Baltimore’s offense to get the ball back with a little under 10 minutes left in the game and only down by three points.

The Bears were pinned inside their own five-yard line when Williams threw the pick, setting the Ravens’ offense up inside Chicago’s 10-yard line.

“It was a good read. (wide receiver) Rome (Odunze) man-to-man with the guy that caught the pick and I just didn’t give a good ball to Rome,” Williams said. “They came out and played a hell of a game. They made the plays when they needed to and I think that’s what it comes down to. It’s a hell of a team over there. I know their record doesn’t necessarily show it, but (they have) been in multiple championship games, playoff games and things like that and that game today was one of those games where they got to come out and try and win this game and we didn’t execute the plays we needed to at the right moments and they did.”

There were numerous things that went wrong for Chicago in this game. Penalties were one of them. Bad clock management, reminiscent of Matt Eberflus's tenure as head coach, was another issue. On Chicago’s two-minute drive near the end of the first half, Williams had a 22-yard scramble but failed to run out of bounds, costing the Bears a timeout.

An intentional grounding penalty two players later cost Chicago their final timeout, and the Bears ultimately did not score on that drive.

“I could have gotten out of bounds also, if we want to talk about managing and things like that. That’s a part of it is that I could have got out of bounds on that long run to save that second time out. But, that didn’t happen and so, I think it just comes down to connecting,” Williams said. “We had two timeouts. The intentional grounding, just wasn’t on the same page with (tight end Colston) Loveland … It was a choice route, so this isn’t anything about Loveland. We just weren’t on the same page. It was a choice route, has a couple different options to break in, (sit) or break out and just wasn’t on the same page and that comes with reps and things like that. So, I think that’s what it comes down to.”

Coming into this game, Chicago only scored a touchdown on half of their red zone trips. Against the Ravens, the Bears were actually worse in the red zone, scoring only one touchdown all game despite numerous drives in Baltimore territory.

This started on the first drives of the game, as Chicago had two promising drives but settled for field goals.

“We could have been up 14 in those first two drives we had (and) that would have created a bunch of momentum for us and I think that’s how it’s been a good amount of the year, especially these past two games,” Williams said. “Been in the red zone a bunch and not necessarily being able to punch it in in the high red and things like that. So, I think that’s the two main things that we got to fix, (penalties and scoring in the red zone), and the guys jumping offsides and those type of things, we’ll get fixed (and) be able to move on from those, and then we just got to execute the plays from there.”

Perhaps the most Eberflus-like moment of the game was on the final drive. Wide receiver DJ Moore made a spectacular one-handed catch for 42 yards to get Chicago down to Baltimore’s three yard line. However, he failed to step out of bounds and the Bears did not have any timeouts left.

Despite four attempts to get in the end zone, Chicago failed after a botched quarterback sneak and miscommunication between Williams and Moore on fourth down.

“I think just punching it in in that situation and right there at the end, it was just me and DJ not being on the same page,” Williams said. “Zero (linebacker Roquan Smith) was sitting (a) little bit lower on the front part of the goal line, but I still saw space to the right of him. So, I tried to get DJ to throw it there, and I think it was just a miscommunication in that situation.”

Williams and the Bears will be looking to get back on track against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sun, Nov 2 (Noon / CBS). The Bengals are also coming off a loss after allowing the New York Jets to score three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. However, since Joe Flacco took over at quarterback for Cincinnati, the Bengals are averaging nearly 30 points per game, making this another challenge for Chicago’s defense.