Caleb Williams is proving that winning with rookie QB is no easy task, but Bears identity is ‘brewing’

INDIANAPOLIS – Honor thy football.

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus knows his team gave the game away Sunday against the Colts in Indianapolis. The Bears turned the ball over three times. Quarterback Caleb Williams threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.

“The first thing we have to do is honor the football,” Eberflus said. “We have to honor the ball. That’s the most important thing in winning.”

He was talking directly to his rookie quarterback. Three turnovers are too many for any football team to overcome. With the loss, the Bears dropped to 1-2 on the season.

“We left one out there today,” Eberflus said.

Through the first three games of the season, the Bears showed that they are a football team that has a long way to go. Williams threw for 363 yards with two touchdown passes. But a backbreaking strip sack midway through the fourth quarter might have been the difference in the game.

With a rookie quarterback slinging the ball, there are going to be mistakes. Whether they like it or not, that’s what Eberflus and the Bears signed up for when they selected Williams with the No. 1 overall draft pick in April. No matter how good the defense might be – and it was darn good again Sunday – the quarterback is going to need time to work through his growing pains.

“It don’t matter, we’re 1-2,” veteran safety Kevin Byard said when asked about the defense’s performance. “I don’t give a damn about the stats. We’re trying to win.”

The offensive line let Williams down the previous two games. While the line was a little bit better Sunday, the struggles up front returned on a key fourth-quarter drive when Colts defensive end Laiatu Latu knocked the ball from Williams’ hands. Williams didn’t really have a chance. Tight ends Cole Kmet and Marcedes Lewis were no match for Latu.

Still, despite three turnovers, there were glimpses of hope for Bears fans to cling to.

“I thought at times he looked like the No. 1 overall pick,” Kmet said. “Like he had a swagger about him, getting rid of the ball, his decisiveness with the football, giving us receivers chances. That was really cool to see.”

The Bears run game was nonexistent again, and they were forced to lean on Williams. He went 33-for-52 passing, an absurd number of pass attempts for a rookie quarterback in his third NFL game. But that’s what was working and the Bears kept going to the well.

He spread the ball out. Kmet had 10 catches for 97 yards, while Rome Odunze had six catches for 112 yards and a touchdown. DJ Moore added eight catches for 78 yards.

Williams became the first Bears quarterback to throw for 350 yards or more since Mitchell Trubisky in 2018. Williams threw more yards Sunday than former quarterback Justin Fields ever did as a member of the Bears.

“We’ll keep slinging it,” Williams said. “We’ll keep repping the run game. We’ll keep getting better, definitely, as an offense. We’re going to get this thing going here soon.”

We’ll keep slinging it. We’ll keep repping the run game. We’ll keep getting better, definitely, as an offense. We’re going to get this thing going here soon.”

—  Caleb Williams, Bears quarterback

How long soon is, of course, is up in the air. Bears fans better buckle up. There probably will be more games like Sunday’s in the immediate future, but the idea is to have fewer and fewer mistakes as Williams progresses throughout the season.

More often than not, that’s what happens with a rookie quarterback.

The fact that Williams has the vision and the weapons to throw for 363 passing yards in just his third game as a pro should give Bears fans hope that they have something here.

“Having the offensive identity, I think it is brewing,” Williams said. “I think it’s a lot closer than it was the weeks before. Us figuring that out is going to get this thing going. I think we’re right there.”