GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals defense was supposed to be a gift for Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears.
What better way to rebound from a heartbreaking loss than facing a defense that ranked at or near the bottom of the league in most statistical categories?
Instead, the Bears made the Cardinals look like the 2018 Bears, and Arizona’s defense made Williams look like a lot of former Bears quarterbacks he’s supposed to make everyone forget.
Things went wrong in all three phases in the 29-9 loss, but there’s a big-picture issue when the No. 1 pick has to go through a lopsided loss.
“Expectations of myself are always going to be high,” Williams said. “They’re still high. We still have nine games. We’ve just got to figure out what’s the next step. Got to figure out how to win this next week. This game’s over. Can’t change this game. But we definitely can change the future.”
The hope of putting Williams on a team like this, with a top-five defense and a great trio of receivers, is it would limit games like this. It would prevent him from the rookie turbulence we see across the league and are used to in Chicago.
Facing a Cardinals defense that had struggled should’ve been a big opportunity for Williams and a plethora of skilled pass catchers, even behind a banged-up offensive line.
“There’s gonna be some opportunities for us on offense to get started fast,” general manager Ryan Poles said on the ESPN 1000 pregame show. “I think there’s some good opportunities to push the ball down the field and create some explosive plays.”
The stats, the tape all showed that the Bears offense could move past the Hail Mary mess simply by playing Arizona’s defense.
Then came Sunday.
Against a defense giving up a 101.4 passer rating to opposing quarterbacks, Williams posted a rating of 68.9. Against a defense allowing quarterbacks to complete 71.7 percent of their passes, Williams was 22-for-41 (53.7 percent). Against a defense giving up 8.0 yards per attempt, Williams averaged 5.3.
The Cardinals were the worst third-down defense in football entering Sunday. The Bears went 3-for-14. The Cardinals had six sacks combined in their previous five games. They sacked Williams six times.
“Lack of execution, I guess,” wide receiver Keenan Allen said. “Not converting, not being able to get points on the board. Just one of them days.”
The Bears got shut out in the first quarter for the sixth time in eight games. Williams looked pretty good on the opening drive, completing 5 of 6 passes, but a negative run by D’Andre Swift followed by yet another illegal-formation penalty — the offense’s fourth this season — set up a third-and-13. Williams was sacked and the Bears had to punt.
It was only the second time they had a drive with at least 10 plays that resulted in a punt this season. Eleven times, they’ve scored points. This was the third time they didn’t.
“I think it starts from negative plays,” Williams said. “I keep talking about it, and we keep talking about (how) we want to start fast. Get that momentum going so that we can figure out ways to maintain it. We would have negative plays, and that’s including myself. … There’s nothing that goes on in that field that happens that I’m not a part of and can be better at in some way.”
Coach Matt Eberflus said he takes “full responsibility” for getting the offense back to what we saw during the three-game winning streak.
“We’ll work with the offensive staff tomorrow morning and find answers for running the ball, first, making sure you do that, and setting everything off of that, and setting up good actions off that,” he said. “I know we got sacked six times today.
“When you protect your quarterback — and our quarterback’s a good quarterback — when you protect him, he can get the ball down the field and do a good job there.”
Williams has to keep improving in those spots, too, as opponents continue to blitz him. There were a few times Sunday when he could’ve gotten rid of the ball quicker. But he was under duress often.
Things aren’t getting better up front, either. Right tackle Darnell Wright, the Bears’ best offensive lineman, left with a knee injury in the fourth quarter. NFL Network reported it’s an MCL sprain.
The loss was almost compounded when Williams, still on the field in the final seconds of a three-score game, got his ankle “gator-rolled” and came up limping. Fortunately, he said he was OK.
“We’re just getting work and getting timing and getting timing on the two-minute operation,” Eberflus said about keeping Williams on the field at the end. “The defense was out there, too.”
The game’s final seconds had to be extra difficult for Williams, knowing that the Bears had moved the ball on the opening drive, only to punt and that they still managed to make it a close game before the defensive lapse at the end of the first half, only to see things spiral.
“It’s tough because one, you lost,” he said. “Two, at one point, it was 7-6 and then from there it just got out of hand. It’s tough to be able to feel like you’re in position, then those things happen. … There’s always a shot until the clock says zero, but it definitely makes it tougher.”
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Keeping with his postgame theme of accountability, Eberflus said he and the coaches “have to find answers” for the offense.
“Three weeks ago, we were doing this,” Eberflus said, sending his hand in an upward trajectory. “It was looking good. Now we’ve got to find answers. That’s why I always say this league is week to week. We’ve got to find answers to put our players in position to be successful, including Caleb.”
One way to help Williams is by getting the tight end more involved. We saw a great connection between Williams and rookie Rome Odunze, who had 100 yards receiving, but Cole Kmet had zero targets Sunday. It’s something he said he won’t complain about, but a 6-foot-6 target is sure to benefit a rookie quarterback.
Kmet has been through losses like this with several quarterbacks. Asked about any message he’d have for Williams, going through his first NFL blowout, Kmet responded, “Caleb’s a competitor. I don’t need to say anything specific to him. He wants to win more than any of us and I know he’s working his tail off to lead his team, lead this offense and lead us going forward.”
As rosy as things looked for the Bears over the summer, worst-case scenarios existed. They never seemed too far-fetched, either, because this coaching staff didn’t have the resume.
Anything that would hinder Williams’ development would fall into that category. No matter what the Bears’ record is this season, they have to feel good in January about what they’ve built for Williams. They can’t have games in which he’s constantly getting chased while trying to do everything he can for a team down multiple scores. That doesn’t benefit anyone.
There’s a fine line between learning experiences and taking a step back. Williams disagreed with the notion that the offense has regressed in the past two weeks, citing the fourth-quarter comeback in Washington.
But ahead of the NFC North onslaught, the offense has to get fixed — again — to support Williams and make sure the franchise’s beacon of hope remains just that.
“We’re having these flashes,” Williams said, “and we’ve got to find a way to keep the light on.”
