Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had a pair of “oh, no” throws Friday that would have been the talk of the week had the Bears not beaten the Philadelphia Eagles on a national stage.
The first was a back-of-the-end-zone dart to Olamide Zaccheaus, who was wide open on a “hero post.” The pass sailed in front of Zaccheaus as he dived to make a play on it in the first quarter.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn the second quarter, a second would-be touchdown pass dropped too low in front of Rome Odunze by the right pylon for him to cradle it.
Bears coach Ben Johnson said the pass to Zaccheaus is called a hero post because “you want to be a hero — that’s when you throw that thing because it’s so rarely thrown. (Williams) happened to find it, it was open and we just barely missed that thing.”
On Odunze’s play, he wasn’t the primary read but Williams “ended up seeing Rome pop and just left him a little bit short. Both of those were a little bit of him seeing the field really well.”
Williams recalled “two where I should have hit, thrown to the right side, Rome and DJ (Moore),” referring to the aforementioned Odunze target and a deep out route to Moore on which Williams threw the ball behind him. “Right time and right everything — miss.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“And then we have the other couple players where the guys slip,” Williams added, referring to slips by Moore and Luther Burden III. “But it’s right time and right spot, it’s just a guy slips.”
Yes, some random factors have gone into Williams’ inaccuracy, but it’s hard to explain away his 33rd-ranked completion percentage (58.1%) among qualified passers, per NFL Pro’s Next Gen Stats. (The NFL’s Game Statistics & Information System ranks him 27th among qualifiers.)
To truly judge accuracy, on-target pass percentage is a better metric than completion percentage because it filters out spikes and throwaways and drills into whether a pass is catchable.
Williams’ career-best on-target pass percentage of 95.7%, according to sports-reference.com’s Stathead, came last season against the Green Bay Packers in the season finale at Lambeau Field.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn fact, only one of Williams’ top 10 performances in that category occurred this season: 76.7% during the 52-21 blowout loss in Week 2 in Detroit.
For the season, just over two out of every three passes Williams has thrown (67.3%) has been on target. His rookie-year average was 72.4%, with only five games dipping below 70%.
“It’s an area that we’re certainly talking about, there’s no question,” Johnson said Monday.
He acknowledged that the wind at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field was challenging and that Bears receivers need to be disciplined in their route running, but he added: “There’s a number of (passes) that we’ve been talking about where we’ve got to fundamentally be correct. The primary receiver, when he’s open, we’ve got to make sure we hit him.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it, and none of us are pleased with that right now.”
Johnson walked back his critique Tuesday.
“When I made that comment yesterday, it’s easy to construe it as I’m not happy with the quarterback,” he said. “That’s not the case whatsoever.
“He continues to get better each and every week, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how he played last week. I know what the stats say. Throw those out of the window. He’s doing a really good job managing the ballgame.”
“Yeah, take the stats out,” Williams said, smiling a little, when told what his coach said. “You go watch some ball and you’ll be able to really see.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWilliams agreed with Johnson: Route discipline and ball location factor into accuracy, but there are other components.
“Obviously, I miss a pass and it looks a certain way to everybody, and everybody doesn’t know all the details,” Williams said. “So you go into that and you look at the stats and you look at all these percentages and whoopty-doo, right?
“So you go into all of that and then from there, we come back here and we actually look at the film. Was I in the right spot? Was my drop right? You always look at yourself first and then you go look at the other guys, and were they at the right spot? Were they at the right spot at the right time? You try and tie those things together.”
Williams characterized the ups and downs of a season as “the fun part about football,” where he and his pass catchers “have these moments where you may not be hitting on all cylinders.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“And then you have these moments where it feels like you can’t miss,” he said. “We’re trying to get to the point where we feel like we can’t miss.”
He believes that’s achieved by a lot of talking with his teammates and coaches, visualizing reps and coverage and film study.
“Details, details, details, and when the time comes, give the guys a runner’s ball and from there let them go be special,” he said. “But my part of it is details, just footwork, being clean and moving throughout the concepts.”
In other words, managing all aspects of the passing game.
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“Game manager” as a label is usually considered a slight, but Williams sees it as a requirement of the position.
“That’s a part of quarterback, obviously,” he said. “When it’s time to go make plays, when it’s time to maybe make a comeback, or when it’s time to put the game away, those times come. But throughout the whole game … it’s being able to make consistent plays, routine plays.
“That’s something that I’m going to keep focusing on because that’s part of quarterbacking. (It’s) managing the game, ‘dirting’ it on a couple of screens that we had and small things like that, throwing out of bounds. All these different things to … keep the team in a positive position.”
Managing is all well and good, but the Cleveland Browns and Packers are third and sixth in pass defense (and 10th and eighth in run defense) while representing three of the Bears’ final five games.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBoth Williams and Johnson understand the challenge the Packers pose, particularly after they slowed down the Detroit Lions’ high-octane offense on Thanksgiving.
“Personnel-wise, they’re pretty loaded across the board,” Johnson said. “You’ve got multiple guys up front that you’ve got to be aware of, starting with Micah (Parsons). … Fast players, sideline to sideline, and then … this is probably the two best safeties (Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams) we’ve seen all year long.”
Said Williams: “Not only best safeties, but they’ve got a hell of a D-line. The ’backers, No. 7 (Quay Walker) especially. Their corners, 25 (Keisean Nixon) and 24 (Carrington Valentine), they’ve been playing very well. The safeties, like Coach said, are extremely talented. And so it’s a great challenge for us.
“We’ve got to be focused on the details and from there we’ve got to go out and execute the plays that are called and have a certain mentality about us when we step on that field.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementInjury updateThe Bears didn’t issue a practice report Tuesday. Linebackers T.J. Edwards and Noah Sewell were spotted on the field during the portion of practice that was open to the media. However, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and wide receiver Rome Odunze weren’t seen.
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