Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears couldn’t keep Caleb Williams clean again on Sunday, but the Minnesota Vikings only got to him twice. The Vikes sent bliters from various angles, and they sent them often — on 66.7% of his drop-backs, according to Next Gen Stats — the second-highest blitz rate from any team this year. Caleb managed the blitz pretty well by either getting the ball out quickly, making a guy miss, or throwing the ball away.
Head coach Ben Johnson talked about how Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores called more cornerback blitzes than they expected, but Caleb did a nice job recognizing them, and the team did a good job adjusting.
Williams’ overall passing numbers in the game were 16 of 32 for 193 yards, but against the blitz, he was 14 of 25 for 171 yards on blitzed plays, with all three drops coming on those.
Johnson said there were some plays they failed to capitalize on downfield, but overall, he said that Williams “played a pretty solid football game,” while adding, “the best thing he did was he kept the ball out of harm’s way.”
Sack 15 – 4th Quarter 15:00 – Dallas Turner
This was a first down, and the Vikings got some fairly quick pressure after the play-action fake. Chicago’s left side got walked back pretty good here, but both Joe Thuney (LG) and Theo Benedet (LT) stayed between their guy and the pocket. Williams stepped up, and he probably should have fired it quickly to running back Kyle Monangai to the left. It may not have been much of a gain, but Caleb was looking that way, and it would have been the quick and easy play.
Instead, he stepped up to scan the field, which allowed Dallas Turner to slip Benedet’s block and get the sack. I can’t blame Benedet because once the QB moves off his spot, he loses his leverage. Williams did decide to run, but it was after he reset, and Turner was already on top of him.
If Caleb didn’t turn down the quick checkdown after looking at it, I probably would have chalked this up to sacks happen, but as it is, I’ll put this on the quarterback.
Sack 16 – 4th Quarter 14:12 – Andrew Van Ginkel
Jalen Redmond (#61), I was not familiar with your game. Redmond had himself a nice afternoon, and on this play, he quickly brushed right guard Jonah Jackson’s block aside and flushed Williams out of the pocket.
Much like the play above, once the quarterback leaves the pocket, it’s almost impossible for a blocker to maintain his leverage, so as Caleb darts right, Andrew Van Ginkle reads the play in front of him and chases.
Williams thought about throwing to the middle, but he either had second thoughts because the throwing lane was muddy, or he saw the Viking lurking in the middle of the field. Van Ginkle had the angle on him, and he wasn’t able to get around the edge or...
