Cubs News: Williams and Moore on lessons learned from the bye week, improved offense |
CHICAGO - For rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, facing the Washington Commanders in Washington D.C. this coming Sunday (3:25 p.m. / CBS) is kind of like a homecoming for him as he went to high school around that area.
He also will be going against Washington’s offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury, who was on the coaching staff at Southern California in Williams’ last collegiate season. “Great guy, great coach … He’s a player’s coach and so, knowing him, knowing how much he loves football, it just brings joy to his players,” Williams said. “It’s been cool building that relationship with him in college and then obviously being a pro about to go play against him.” This matchup was originally scheduled to be a noon game. However, with the success that Williams and Washington has had under their rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, caused the NFL to flex the game. With Williams selected as the No. 1 overall pick and Daniels as the No. 2 overall pick, their names will inevitably be intertwined throughout their collegiate careers. “It’s been pretty cool watching him, his progress from Arizona State to LSU and now in the pros, balling out,” Williams said. “He’s been playing great over there with Kliff and all the guys they have over there, and so happy for him. It's great to see him balling out.” The bye week came at a good time for the Bears' offense to evaluate its performance through the first six games. It gave Williams a chance to consider how the offense can improve in the next part of the year, primarily by scoring more points in the first quarter. “First quarter, we got to come out and be better. We’ve scored a bunch in (the) second, third, and fourth quarter,” Williams said. “But first quarter for sure, we got to be better. So, really excited about this opportunity and getting ready to go.” Williams is not the only one who believes the Bears need to score more in the first quarter. Wide receiver DJ Moore knew that Chicago’s offense was not performing to their standard the first few weeks of the season, but they have gotten things in gear now. “Probably just seeing the defense going out there, dominating the opponent on their side, and us not holding up our end,” Moore said. “So, we had to turn it up a notch, and here we are, and it’s finally clicking, and we just got to keep going.” One key to the Bears performing better on offense is the performance of Williams, who has put up a quarterback rating of at least 100 in the past three games. He has six touchdown passes in the past two games with 530 passing yards after having no passing touchdowns and 267 passing yards in the first two games. Against the Indianapolis Colts in week three, Williams hit his low with three total turnovers. However, Moore said Williams has hit his stride since that game. “We (are) just playing football. His struggles came (in) Houston and Indy … He’s bounced back and been on a roll since. So, I think, hopefully, he got that out of the way. We just go stay on his roll,” Moore said. “He had to grow to where he can tell everybody what’s going on in the huddle and why we’re going it. On certain things, if (he) see something that he doesn’t like or he tell us, ‘Make sure it’s like this so we on the same page,’ he had to grow to that and now you can see (that) he bossy, but in a not mean way, but his own way.” Facing the Commanders will perhaps be Chicago’s biggest challenge this season, regardless of whether Daniels can play on Sunday after suffering a rib injury against the Carolina Panthers in their last game. However, Moore has a good history against Washington. Last season, when the Bears played the Commanders, he had eight catches for 230 yards and three touchdowns. While that will be in the back of his mind this Sunday, he believes it will come down to who wants the win more. “I think about it. 230 (doesn’t) go out (of) your mind when you (are) playing the team from last year, but it’s a new year, and they got new people, some new people. So, we’ll see what happens,” Moore said. “They got five wins for a reason. They go out there and play hard. But, we do the same thing and we get paid to go get wins in our win column. So, that’s going to be the test - who (wants) it more?”
