On Sunday, the Chicago Bears had their best offensive performance of the season in their victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Week 4 was another week of growth from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, and we will discuss what went well and what needs to be improved this afternoon.
In addition to Williams having another week of growth, the offense as a unit took a step forward in this one. Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron started to find a groove schematically, especially in the second half on Sunday. Regarding schematics and design, I want to look at a few plays from the first half that show progress and an area where the Bears still have to make some changes.
Caleb Williams and the Bears Offense Took a Big Step Forward on Sunday
On the game’s opening drive, the Bears ran a screen play on third down that didn’t get the ball past the chains and was criticized by many, myself included. The screen went to Cole Kmet, with Rome Odunze as a designed screen. The issue was that it was a slow-developing play designed toward the sideline and featured D’Andre Swift and Odunze as blockers. After watching the film, I don’t hate the design as much as the personnel decision. If that play had Odunze as the receiver and Kmet blocking in his spot, it would have probably been a successful play.
As early as that play was in the game, it was an excellent precursor to what we would see throughout, with Wadlron’s scheme and personnel usage close to where they need to be but not quite there yet.
There was another first-half play where Williams kept the football on a read option for a nice gain.
More first-half schematic wins, a read option for Williams, in which he correctly identifies the C gap defender (Verse) commit to the run, and Williams keeps it for a nice gain.
Good design. Great read. Positive play.
Again, we're getting closer schematically. pic.twitter.com/2iQzACw5hd— Patrick K. Flowers (@PatrickKFlowers) October 1, 2024
I like this play for a few reasons. First, it’s a good design and proof that Waldron is still cycling through his bag of tricks, something we didn’t see much of in the first three weeks. Second, Williams makes the correct read, identifying the C gap rusher (Jared Verse) who was sold on the handoff to Roschon Johnson and taking off for a nice gain.
Creativeness, variance, and execution were good across the board. Finding a way to give Williams space to move and gain yards without getting hit, adding another look into the design, and giving defenses something else to consider are all positives.
But it wasn’t all rosy for Waldron and the Bears in the first half. Here’s a coverage sack that’s caused by a poor design.
The Rams are in man coverage, and the Bears are running all static routes, which have no chance of winning against man. Williams smartly doesn’t force something that isn’t there. If we have static routes on one side of the field against man coverage, we must have a man-beater on the other side. This just wasn’t a good design and kudos to Caleb for not forcing the issue.
Caleb Williams’s theme of the day was not forcing the issue. He played turnover-free football, and when he did throw into a tight window, he threw perfect balls. Here are two throws that not many rookies make, that Williams made look easy on Sunday.
First, we have the touchdown pass to DJ Moore:
This was an A+ throw in real-time, and the All-22 angles make it an A+++ throw. Williams looks left to pull the safety to that side of the end zone, stands tall in a dirty pocket, and delivers a strike to DJ Moore in a tight window in the back of the end zone. This throw perfectly exemplifies Williams’ elite arm talent and his poise under pressure.
A notable difference between this week and previous weeks for Williams was that no matter what happened, he was resolute in his desire to stay in the pocket and make something good happen, but not in a reckless fashion. His poise and vision were phenomenal this week.
This next throw to Cole Kmet was even more impressive:
It’s pretty straightforward here: we have a play-fake followed by Williams nailing Cole Kmet up the seam for a chunk play and a first down in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. Williams makes a perfect throw, getting the ball over the linebacker’s hands and keeping the catch point in front of the safeties.
Quick observation: Both throws came in tempo with the offense working in the no-huddle. What Shane Waldron did so well in the second half was keep the Bears offense A) in rhythm and B) ahead of the chains. It made Williams comfortable and allowed him to show off his skills.
Allright, let’s talk about a miss and, worse, six points left on the field late in the first half:
This one was an overthrow. But it looked like Moore slowed on his route, causing the overthrow. To me, the most concerning (but not all that concerning) aspect of this sequence is that we’re seeing a trend of Williams and Moore not being on the same page with particular routes. We saw it last week in Indianapolis, where Moore took responsibility, and again, here in a big spot.
The encouraging thing is that Williams and Moore immediately discussed the route on the sideline after the drive. It’s game four; they’ll continue to develop continuity and understand what Caleb wants Moore to do on these routes.
The one knock on Williams this week is his deep-ball accuracy.
Let’s look at his four incompletions on throws that traveled 20-plus yards in the air.
1. This is a throw-away. You can (if you want to) make the case that Williams could have placed the ball in front of Odunze on the sideline, but I don’t have an issue with the throw-away here.
2. This was an end zone look, and Odunze won his matchup. It’s a legitimate overthrow and miss by Williams. It’s a miss where only his receiver has a chance, but a miss nonetheless.
3. This was the Moore miss in the end zone, which I’ve already explained and shared in the video, so on to the next.
4. This is another end-zone look to Moore, and it seems like the two are, once again, crossed up on an option route. Moore turns right, Williams throws left, and we have an incompletion.
I understand the frustration with the lack of deep ball success thus far, but nothing here looks like it can’t be easily corrected in-season.
Everyone has loved Jayden Daniels’ season thus far, but he’s not having much deep success either. Here’s his Week 3 passing chart:
In Week 4, Daniels had an incompletion and an interception on his only two passes that traveled more than 20 yards in the air. He’s also heavily limited to the right side of the field (which you can see even more in Week 3’s passing chart), which, to me, looks like a quarterback who is limited in getting through his progressions or a quarterback whose coaching staff doesn’t trust his ability to get through his reads.
Williams’ Week 4 passing chart is even on both sides, and we’ve seen on the tape that he’s getting through his progressions on most dropbacks. The touchdown to DJ Moore was a third read, and a few of the dumps to D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson were post-progression decisions based on the coverage and the pocket.
The bottom line here: Week 4 was Williams’ best. It was the offense’s best. The development has been there in each of the rookie’s first four games, and it looks like he and the offense will get things figured out during the soft part of their schedule.