The Chicago Bears community felt shell-shocked on Sunday. On the cusp of what looked like a potential comeback to beat Minnesota, quarterback Caleb Williams hit the turf without being touched. Everybody feared the worst. Williams tore his Achilles or ACL. He was done for the season. It didn’t help that he was carted to the locker room in tears. That was it. The season is over.
Mercifully, it wasn’t nearly as bad as feared. The Bears eventually declared Williams out for the game with what was determined to be a hamstring injury. Medical experts who reviewed the footage believed it was likely a strain, meaning he could miss 1 to 2 months, depending on its severity. Far preferable to the originally feared outcome.
However, Williams wasn’t focused on that. After the game ended in a 9-3 loss, he gathered the team in the locker room and gave them a speech with a simple, straightforward message.
Caleb Williams’ evolution as a leader is truly something.
Plenty of quarterbacks would’ve chosen to stay out of the mix, focusing on what they must do to start recovering. The head coach or one of the other captains could’ve conveyed the necessary message. Not Williams. Injury or not, he had a responsibility to make sure the necessary words were said. Yes, the loss hurt. It derailed much of the momentum they’d built in week one against Carolina. However, it is still just one game. It isn’t like the Bears were thoroughly crushed. They lost by 6 points.
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Caleb Williams also noted that for all the love Minnesota got for the victory, the evidence shows that Chicago lost the game more than they won it. So many brutal mistakes that cost them points. Six penalties inside Vikings territory. A fumble at the goal line. A dropped pass at the 5-yard line. Having a chip-shot field goal blocked. A litany of missed opportunities. Williams made sure everybody understood that you won’t win many games with sloppy efforts like that. It falls on everybody, himself included, to clean up the mess.
Flush this game and get ready for Philadelphia next weekend.
Williams understands the big picture.
The season is not over, far from it. Remember, the Bears went 0-2 to start last season. Both losses were to division rivals. Everybody declared the season dead. Chicago won the NFC North anyway. They’re already ahead of the game at 1-1. Each of their next two games will be at home. This is not the time to panic. The team is way too talented to let something like that happen. It was a bad day. Those happens. Think about it for 24 hours, review the game to identify what went wrong, and use this week of practice to make corrections.
Meanwhile, Williams will focus on recovering that hamstring as quickly as possible. Given the layout of the schedule, you’re probably looking at the game in Green Bay against the Packers in three weeks as the one to circle for his potential return. If Tyson Bagent can go 1-1 over the next two weeks against the Eagles and Jets, Williams can return to get his team back on track.
