Bears QB Caleb Williams is racking up yards while playing from behind, and that means very little

Bears rookie Caleb Williams threw for more than 300 yards again Sunday at Soldier Field, and it meant nothing.

That’s because, as he had in the previous three weeks, he spent most of the 34-17 loss to the Lions playing from behind.

There were soft covers and no real stakes.

The Lions scored 20 points before the Bears were on their way to their ninth straight loss. The Bears had been shut out in the first half in each of their last three games and trailed 53-0 overall when they jogged to the locker room. On Sunday, they trailed 27-14 against a Lions defense that had given up 48 points to the Bills a week ago.

The rest of the snaps were mostly meaningless, even for a rookie quarterback who needs to add all sorts of plays to his Rolodex. Williams hasn’t caught a lead since Week 11.

The circumstances the Bears put him in — and the circumstances he puts himself in — have clouded the most important question the team will have to ask at the end of the season: Where exactly is Williams in his development?

He finished the game 26-for-40 for 334 yards with two touchdown passes and a passer rating of 107.7. Only 20 times in Bears history has a quarterback thrown for 334 yards and two touchdowns with a passer rating of at least 107 in a game.

However, in a game that was never close, that didn’t matter much.

“Every snap is valuable,” Williams said. “There are so many different situations that happen during games that you can learn from and that’s what I learned from this year.”

He’s definitely learned to throw the ball all over the field when there’s no fear of things getting worse. Williams and the Bears trailed by more than a point for all but the first 9:23 of Sunday’s game. Last Monday against the Vikings it was initially 9:56. The week before against the 49ers it was 13:21.

How will Williams learn to win in the NFL if he’s forgotten what it feels like to even play with a lead?

“It’s hard to build on things like that because you don’t want to start multiple games next year being down two points the whole game,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “That’s not how you want to play offensive football in this league. “You have to be able to run the ball, play action and all those things.

“When you go two points behind, especially towards the end of the game, I honestly don’t know what you can really take from it.”

The Bears fell behind early after rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze fumbled the ball twice in the first quarter, the first time on a fly-sweep handoff from Williams and the second time on a 19-yard completion.

The Bears scored their first touchdown on a one-yard pass from Williams to Kmet about midway through the second quarter and their second when Williams found wide receiver Keenan Allen down the right sideline and made it 45 with 39 seconds left in the first half. Yard score scored. Allen finished the season with a season-high 141 receiving yards, more than any Bears receiver this season.

But the Lions scored on six of their first seven possessions, the only exception being a missed 65-yard field goal at the end of the first half.

Running back Jahmyr Gibbs, playing without injured running mate David Montgomery, ran for a one-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Wide receiver Jameson Williams followed with an 82-yard touchdown catch two minutes into the second after a great play fake by quarterback Jared Goff. With about a minute left in the half, the Bears failed to tackle Amon-Ra St. Brown on an eight-yard receiver screen that led to the touchdown.

All Williams could do the rest of the way was score points.

“Everything is always evaluated,” Bears interim coach Thomas Brown said. “Of course I want to get off to a better start and get into the flow of the game.” “But if you shoot yourself in the foot, it will be difficult.”

Allen paused when asked about the value of performing when the other team has a big lead.

“You have moral victories, moral victories,” he said. “It’s good to score. “Obviously it’s just the ability to be productive on offense, getting better, Caleb getting more reps, seeing different things on defense and ultimately just the whole season about getting better.”

Williams has 3,271 passing yards this season, the sixth-most in franchise history and three fewer than Jay Cutler’s 3,274 in 2010. It’s still important that he takes advantage of every snap he can for the rest of this lost season, though the Bears have to do what they want to make sure those snaps come in important situations.

Otherwise, they’ll have to spend the offseason sorting through garbage time points and yards and figuring out what Williams can lean on in more competitive game situations.

“No matter how the defense plays, no matter what plays are called for us on offense, we have to go out there and execute,” Williams said. “That’s the easiest way to take it down.”

Jefferson finished the game with 10 catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns as the Vikings (13-2) won their eighth straight.

From AP

Another week, another disappointing loss for the Bears.

From Sun-Times Staff Writer

Most of Caleb Williams’ performance came after the Bears trailed 20-0. The offensive line lost two starters in the second quarter – that’s how it is at this point. The secondary struggled against Jared Goff and Jameson Williams.

From Mark Potash