It turns out we jumped the gun on Caleb Williams. He just needed time to get used to Ben Johnson’s offense and the perfect team to regain his confidence. Williams just needed to face the Dallas Cowboys terrible defense to show he still has the potential to be a solid NFL quarterback.
In the first half against the Cowboys in their Week 3 clash, Williams tossed three touchdown passes, including a 65 yard touchdown pass to Luther Burden III and a 35 yard touchdown pass to Rome Odunze. This is the Caleb Williams we all expected to see this season. He teased it against the Minnesota Vikings, regressed against the Detroit Lions and finally returned to form.
Not only is this the form we expected from Williams, but this is the type of offense the Chicago Bears were expected to run with Ben Johnson at the helm. The offense looked stale the first two weeks, which is vastly different from the approach the Lions had the previous two seasons with Johnson. If this is what we can expect moving forward, the Bears are in good shape.
Caleb Williams finally looks like the quarterback we all expected him to be
Williams and the Bears offense had a lot of problems in the first two weeks. They struggled to move the ball and subsequently didn’t score as often as they would have liked. They punted on their first drive of the game, and then Chicago proceeded to score a touchdown or field goal on four of the next five first-half drives.
I’m not sure what the difference was from the first two weeks to this week, but this is finally the way we all expected this offense to look. I’m sure it helps that the Cowboys have a bad pass defense, which is helping him regain his confidence too. The first two weeks, going against the Vikings and Lions defensive line, isn’t necessarily ideal.
Williams had more yards in the first half than he did in each of the first two games. That’s the growth we wanted to see and proof that patience was key. The question is, can he do this consistently? It’s one thing to do it against a struggling defense one time; it’s another to go out and play like this every week.
With his performance against the Cowboys, Williams once again raised the expectations on him. He now has a new floor and anything less than what he’s already done in Week 3 will raise new questions.
Ben Johnson is finally seeing the results of his scheme
The only person probably happier than a Bears fan watching what Williams is doing to the Cowboys is Johnson. He had to answer questions for the last few months about when this offense will start to look like it did when he was in Detroit. He even voiced frustration with the offense struggling to move the ball and score.
He won’t have to worry about answering those questions this week and maybe it means this team is finally learning this offense. To see the Bears execute like this against Dallas takes some pressure off both Williams and Johnson. If they didn’t figure it out this week, it was going to haunt this team all season.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that it took the Bears a few weeks to look like the explosive offense they wanted to. They have had years of being the bottom-feeders of the NFL and a new coach wasn’t going to change that in one game. Figuring it out against the Cowboys is a good sign.
But consistency will be paramount to avoid the negative spotlight again. The Bears look like they’re well on their way to their first win of the season. For the first time in 2025, Williams, Johnson and the rest of the offense are in sync. It might be what ignites the Bears’ turnaround.