Windy City Gridiron
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Sunday brought us A LOT of good film on every QB that played for the Chicago Bears. The offense was in sync against the Buffalo Bills, racking up 500+ yards, 30+ first downs, and 38 points in routing and shutting out the Buffalo Bills. And we finally (and most importantly) got a live look at Caleb Williams under center for Ben Johnson, and it was a good first look. Let’s take a look at the numbers and see what they say.
Caleb Williams starts us off, and started absolutely on fire with the number 1 offense. While the Bills were playing a majority of second stringers, there’s things we can take away from his two series that generally translate well regardless of competition. On the first drive Williams was on time with his throws, decisive, worked within structure and was accurate. Completing passes of 6, 8, 18, 29, and 36 yards, the latter going for a touchdown to Olamide Zaccheaus. His one incompletion came on a throw that saw him see pressure just 1.82 seconds after the snap. He managed to extend the play and deliver a ball to Zacceaus, however it was underthrown and incomplete. I graded the play “Above Average” for Caleb’s ability to extend a play that a majority of QB’s are dead in the water on. I will note that this is a play I’ve come to almost expect Caleb to make. A play out of structure and a throw on the run. His second drive wasn’t as impressive but we still had some good takes aways. His completion to D. J. Moore on 3rd down was a perfectly thrown Out route that showed fantastic anticipation to move the chains. He also showed some growth from last season, throwing the ball at the feet of Brittain Brown on a screen play that was blown up. In 2024 we saw a lot of uncertainty in those situations for Caleb, where he would try to extend a play that had nothing there. His ability to throw it away and move to the next down is positive growth from last year. His last incompletion was a tad inaccurate but graded as a drop, as Rome Odunze, and the throw hit both his hands. (PFF also graded this as a drop.)
His worst throw on the day was an incompletion to Deion Hankins, a throw that was late and behind Hankins, causing Hankins to take an awkward hit.
Factoring the throw away to Brittian Browns and the Odunze drop, his adjusted completion percentage was 77.8%.
Despite only playing 2 series, Caleb’s game score of 2.30 scores as a “Fantastic” half.
This is a pretty simple 4 Verticals with Bills showing Cover 1 initially. Caleb Williams and Cole Kmet diagnose the defensive play call correctly, most likely reading the Nickle Cornerback’s outside leverage, and the Bills drop into Cover 2 post snap. Caleb delivers a perfect ball towards...
