The Bears started Sunday’s game in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars much like they had every other game this season: offensively inept and behind on the scoreboard.
As play-by-play broadcaster Rich Eisen was so quick to point out, the Bears have not held the first lead in a game yet this season. Their opponents have put them in a hole in all six contests of the 2024 campaign.
The biggest cause for that problem has been an inept offense that can’t string together a sustained drive right out of the gate. It took a whole quarter of action, and two 3-and-outs, for the offense to find the right blend of play calls and execution for them to move the chains and put points on the board.
By the end of the game, the offense was humming against an overmatched Jaguars defense and the Bears walked away with a 35-16 victory, their second-straight week of scoring at least that many points.
As he has done in each subsequent game this season, Caleb Williams showed growth from the previous outing. From his full field reads to his pocket presence and quick throws through tight windows, Williams had a tremendous game against the Jaguars.
The rookie completed 23 of 29 pass attempts (79%) for 226 yards and 4 touchdowns. He nearly had a 5th touchdown on a shovel pass to D.J. Moore, which was originally ruled a touchdown, but was overturned upon review as Moore’s elbow touched down just outside the goal line before the ball crossed the plane.
Williams also flashed the ability he demonstrated so frequently in college of being able to make plays on the run, evading pressure and finding a wide-open Cole Kmet for a big catch and run.
Although it was his best performance of the season so far, Williams did have one pass he’d have liked back. On a wise play call by Shane Waldron, the Bears were facing a third and one from Jacksonville’s 41-yard-line — clearly four down territory. Waldron sent in the jumbo package with Doug Kramer and Kiran Amegadjie reporting as eligible. What the defense was expecting was a power run for the first down attempt. What the defense got was a deep pass from Williams to an open D.J. Moore inside the 10-yard-line, which probably would have been a touchdown pass had the quarterback led his receiver with a throw to the pylon.
Instead, Williams floated the pass to Moore which was badly underthrown and it got picked off at the 7.
Give credit to Williams who, after the game during his on-field interview, focused on that mistake and his need to get better rather than bask in the rest of his impressive success.
After Williams’ performance, the next most impressive Bear for the day had to be Kmet. The tight end led the team with 5 receptions for 70 yards and caught two touchdown passes, while also serving as the team’s emergency long snapper — a fact that Eisen made sure to point out every single time the Bears lined up to kick.
But Williams and Kmet were also part of perhaps the best play call of the day.
Early in the second quarter, the Bears were knocking at the door at the Jacksonville 31-yard-line. With Keenan Allen in motion in the backfield, Williams took the snap and faked a throw to Allen in the left flat, drawing some defenders that way. Then Williams pivoted and faked a throw to the right flat to D’Andre Swift, drawing other defenders that way. He then hit Kmet in stride down the middle of the field. Kmet shook off one defender and dove for the end zone with another defender around his legs. It was the first score of the day for the Bears offense and gave them exactly the injection of momentum they needed to get going.
I’d be remiss not to talk about the performance of the defense. They’ve been so good for a long time now that we sometimes take for granted how good they are.
Already down Jaquan Brisker, who didn’t make the trip to London due to a concussion, and Tyrique Stevenson, who injured his calf this past week, the defense also lost Kyler Gordon midway through the game. And with three-fifths of their secondary out, the Bears still played great ball and held the Jaguars to under 21 points, improving their streak to 12 straight games dating back to last year.
Jaylon Jones led the team in tackles filling in for Stevenson. DeMarcus Walker had a sack and a tackle for loss. Chris Williams and Amen Ogbongbemiga both had sacks and tackles for loss while Montez Sweat and Byron Cowart split a sack. Josh Blackwell, meanwhile, stepped in with an interception.
The Bears now sit at 4-2 after six weeks and head into the bye in a great situation. They’ll have two weeks to prepare for the Rookie Quarterback Bowl, when they’ll face the red hot Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders and hopefully shut him down for the benefit of their own quarterback.
Yes, it’s okay if both the Bears and Commanders have good quarterbacks. The X-perts on social media will try to calm Bears fans’ nerves about Daniels being off to a better start this year than Williams and quell any discussions about whether the Bears “took the wrong quarterback.” But it still would feel a lot better if Williams went out there and outplayed Daniels and reshaped the narrative.
Either way, give me a win and a 5-2 record and I’ll be happy. Williams is well on his way to being a franchise quarterback, even if it’s only been six weeks. The arrow is pointed in the right direction, and that should give Bears fans plenty of hope for a bright future.