After conquering wind, Williams can’t get caught in London fog
After the Bears cruised to an easy victory over Carolina on Sunday, D.J. Moore was asked if it meant more playing against his former team.
But no one asked Andy Dalton if it was special returning to Soldier Field, where he once served as quarterback placeholder.
Three years ago, Dalton limped off the field with a knee injury in Week 2 against the Bengals, forcing rookie Justin Fields into action. It's easy to wonder what would have happened if Dalton stayed healthy, because Fields was forced to play before he was ready and almost certainly would have benefited from more time on the bench.
Caleb Williams, on the other hand, looked ready Sunday. His 10.5 yards per attempt, with no interceptions, is arguably a top-five performance by an NFL starting QB so far this season. And it happened on a windy day.
“I was surprised everything was on the money with us with the ball, just being in the air like that and the wind,” Moore said after hauling in 2 touchdown catches, covering a combined 64 yards. “I was surprised by it.”
Coach Matt Eberflus brought up the Bear-weather success at his Monday news conference.
“It's not going to get better,” he said. “That's the way Chicago is. We're going to get ice, we're going to get wind, we're going to get snow.”
Eberflus is a relative newcomer to Chicago, so he hasn't fully grasped the way winters have gotten milder around here. There may be less cold and snow for Williams to deal with later in the season, but the wind can show up anytime.
Go ahead and call this a quality victory for the Bears, even though the Panthers are hardly a Super Bowl threat. Rolling over bad teams is a nice first step, especially this year when NFL games have been extremely close and big underdogs have won at an alarming rate.
Betting lines vary, but according to espn.com, the spread in this one was Bears by 3.5 points. Seems disrespectful in hindsight.
Of course, the Bears' greatest weakness has been on hiatus the past two weeks because the Rams and Panthers didn't bring a strong pass rush. Most quarterbacks look good throwing the ball from a clean pocket. Williams' throws look really good.
We'll see if anything changes in London this week, where they'll have to block former No. 1 overall draft pick Travon Walker, who has 5 sacks in five games. The Jaguars will also have something of a homefield advantage as the only NFL team that's played in London every year since 2013, minus the pandemic. In fact, Jacksonville is staying across the pond to play a second game against the Patriots.
Eberflus decided the team should leave Monday evening for England and spend the whole week getting used to the time change. Some teams don't bother with that.
“I went to Italy this summer, and I tell you, it takes you a couple days to get there (time-adjusted),” he said. “I'm all-in for that.”
On Sunday, it was wind. Now Williams must deal with a six-hour time change and try to stay ahead of schedule.