Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears are coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 14, with a critical rematch on tap for Week 16 and the Cleveland Browns lurking in between. One former scout looked a bit further down the road for the Bears, though.
Bears head coach Ben Johnson said they are not overlooking this week’s matchup against the Cleveland Browns. He also made it clear that they still need more wins to secure the postseason.
If they make it, the Bears could prove to be an underrated, difficult matchup.
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Fox Sports’ Bucky Brooks, a former NFL player and scout, acknowledged the Bears’ loss to the Packers in Week 14. He dropped them four slots from No. 5 to No. 9 in his weekly power rankings.
However, Brooks has hardly lost faith in Johnson or the Bears.
The same is true about Williams. Brooks believes Williams just needs to deliver as he has in certain situations for the Bears to succeed as soon as this postseason.
“Ben Johnson’s team is built to play playoff football, with a potent rushing attack complementing an opportunistic defense,” Brooks wrote on December 8. “If second-year quarterback Caleb Williams can come through as a fourth-quarter playmaker, the Bears have the pieces in place to make a deep playoff run.”
The Bears can point to a handful of plays as having determined their loss to the Packers, whom Brooks moved into the vacated five-slot from No. 6. Cleaning up the issues that led to those plays is far different from identifying them, though.
Brooks also moved the San Francisco 49ers from ninth to eighth place after their Week 14 bye.
The Bears will visit the 49ers in Week 17. They close out the regular season against the Detroit Lions. Detroit, along with the Packers, looms as a potential postseason matchup.
Former NFL player and ex-executive Louis Riddick, now an analyst for ESPN, had plenty of praise for Johnson and Williams during the contest. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur acknowledged the Bears’ final play call was unexpected.
Execution has been the Bears’ biggest bugaboo this season.
Expectedly, the operation has not run as smoothly for Williams and the Bears overall in Year 1 under Johnson as it did with the Detroit Lions during the coach’s third season as offensive coordinator.
However, the signs that the situation is headed in the right direction are manyfold. That was also the case before the loss to the Packers. Perhaps Johnson and the Bears need to protect Williams from himself more during the game. They can do that by leaning on the run.
The coach noted wanting to get his young QB in a better rhythm earlier in games.
Johnson and Williams must and will continue working on issues like the Bears’ young passer’s inefficiency, which drops have impacted. Working on a winning record makes that less painful for everyone.