The Chicago Bears have come a long way in the past couple of months. Things couldn’t have started worse for them in September. They coughed up a big 4th quarter lead on opening night to the Minnesota Vikings. Then the next week, they were crushed 52-21 in Detroit. It was arguably the lowest point for many Bears fans in a long time. Nothing had changed. The team was still terrible. However, head coach Ben Johnson remained resolute. He stated without any doubt that quarterback Caleb Williams and the rest of the team would improve.
In fact, they would end up playing their best football of the year in December, right when it was needed. Nobody took him seriously at the time.
“It is early in the season. There are a number of teams that have started the season not the way that they would like to and yet they bounce back, and they find a way to win. We’re going to be playing our best football in December. I know that to be certain. We’re just in a race right now to get better in a hurry, and the faster we get there, the wins will start coming and we’ll be just fine.”
Time has proven him wise. The Bears are 2-2 in December this year, including a monumental win over the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. Both losses ended with the team mere yards from scoring a game-tying or winning touchdown. Yet the biggest development by far has been that of Williams. He’s playing elite-caliber football over the past month, and it includes fixing some of his biggest issues.
Caleb Williams has found his stride.
Look at it like this. If you take his numbers over the past month and average them out to a full season, he would finish with 4,284 yards, 34 touchdowns, and four interceptions. That is what the best quarterbacks in the NFL put up. A Bears quarterback is now on that kind of pace, and he’s doing it with a completion percentage that is still among the NFL’s worst. That is probably what should terrify other teams the most. If this is the inefficient version of Caleb Williams, what could it become once he cleans up the remaining minor issues?
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All that aside, it’s time to give Johnson his flowers. He didn’t wait until the Bears were improving to make that statement about December. He said it at their lowest point, showing his conviction and brilliance. He knew that if he got everybody on the same page as planned, this team would come together. It took some wild twists and turns along the way, but the Bears got there. You know a coach is good at what he does when he can make his predictions come true, especially about his quarterback.
