Windy City Gridiron
No news to Chicago Bears fans, but Caleb Williams took a lot of sacks last year, getting sacked on 10.79% of his dropbacks. However, did you know he also led the league in sacks avoided as a rookie? This season, he’s taking far fewer sacks, with his sack percentage way down to 4.56 (fifth lowest in the NFL!), but he’s still leading the league in sacks avoided.
I knew he was a good athlete, but his quickness and elusiveness were undersold coming out of USC.
Head coach Ben Johnson compared his quarterback to the most famous escape artist of all time.
“He looks like a Houdini back there in the backfield,” Johnson said of Williams in his postgame presser, “because that’s a really good pass-rushing front. They’ve given a lot of teams fits. I think [Brian] Burns is leading the NFL in sacks. There were times where he’s trying to escape and making some things happen. He had a couple throws down the field, but over 50 yards again rushing for the second week in a row, and I thought in the fourth quarter there, we really needed that as a shot in the arm to end up winning that ballgame. So, credit to him.”
The Bears’ social media team picked up on the Houdini theme and put out a fantastic video.
Last year at this time, I was breaking down nine sacks that the Bears gave up to the New England Patriots, but this week, there’s not a single sack to look at. A year ago, the Bears had allowed 38 sacks through 10 weeks, the most in the Sackwatch era. This year, the Bears have allowed just 14 sacks, the fewest since I’ve been tabulating sacks at WCG.
Also, is this a good graph? Because this seems like a good graph.
Since there are no sacks to break down, how about I spotlight a couple of sacks that Caleb avoided?
Not a sack! – 3rd Quarter 10:52 – Brian Burns missed!
Caleb avoided a few on the afternoon, but this was one of my favorites. It was just a five-yard run, but on a third and four, Caleb made a play to move the sticks.
Right tackle Darnell Wright made a couple of mistakes on the day, and on this one, he overset to prevent #0 (Brian Burns) from getting the edge. It also looks like Wright may have guessed wrong with his hand placement, but kudos to the NFL’s sack leader for a nice pass rush here. But an even bigger kudos to Caleb for shaking off the sack by the 6’5″, 250-pound Burns, and then running through the diving tackle attempt from Kayvon Thibodeaux (6’5″, 258). This drive stalled, and the Bears had to punt, but Williams was frustrating the Giants’ pass rushers all afternoon.
Not a sack! – 4th Quarter 5:29 – Kayvon Thibodeaux was juked! The above sack was more about Caleb’s strength, but this next one was all about athleticism.
By now, you’ve...
