Cubs News: Williams sees loss to Pats as "learning experience", still confident in Eberflus |
CHICAGO - While rookie quarterback Caleb Williams arguably had the worst game of his career against the New England Patriots after getting sacked nine times and finished with a completion percentage under 55 percent for the third straight game.
Williams took responsibility for his mistakes in this game, particularly his lack of awareness of situational football. “I’d say it first starts with me. I took, I had about two (or) three plays in key moments of situational ball that it didn’t click (in) my head. (Two) was taking two sacks, two or three sacks, in situations where we were able to get a field goal attempt and then I put us out of field range (by) not throwing the ball out of bounds or over one of my wide receivers’ heads or dirting it, things all like,” Williams said. “Then, the other one, which (I) should have handed the ball off to (running back D’Andre Swift). Instead, I threw it to (wide receiver) DJ (Moore). Saw the safety coming out (of) the sky, thought I’d get to DJ and I know we had two blockers over there and DJ could spring it and go run for a good distance and (it) wasn’t the right decision. Definitely, this game is a lot to learn from for myself. Just speaking on some of the situational things. Obviously, there’s a few passes every game that you wish you could have back. But, I think situationally, this game was a great learning experience for me with some of these situations that I could have done better for sure.” This loss is not solely on Williams. The offensive line was battered with injuries, and they could not protect their quarterback. Although penalties are never a good thing, the Bears only had five for 25 yards. The problem was the timing of these penalties as they seemed to come at the worst possible time, such as the false start penalty on wide receiver Keenan Allen on fourth and five late in the fourth quarter. “I’d say we just got to get better with execution. I think regardless of whether the play is good, bad, indifferent, whether we have people down or anything like that, we got to go out and execute,” Williams said. “We got to do better with that whether it’s penalties, whether it’s negative plays and speaking on that, a negative play like I threw to DJ is what I’m talking about. So, I think it starts there and then from there, it’s hard to stop offenses when you do those things.” Williams acknowledged after the game that the Bears are in a difficult position. At 4-5, with most of their remaining schedule being division games against some of the top teams in the NFL, Chicago needs to turn things around quickly. The defense has not been playing the best against the run, but they have been limiting the number of points opponents put up as they have not allowed more than 21 points in a game with the exception of the loss to the Arizona Cardinals. On special teams, kicker Cairo Santos is pretty reliable, but he has not been put in positions where he can even attempt field goals. Through the first eight games of the season, Santos only has 12 field goal attempts. He only had a chance at one field goal against the Patriots. In fact, Santos has been the only one to score for the Bears in the past two games, as the offense has failed to score a touchdown. Williams knows this cannot continue for the offense as they must execute. “There’s things that I don’t miss, things that I haven’t missed, things that just timing and rhythm and things like that. I’d say just throughout the week, before the weeks and things like that, before we got to this point in the season, doing better at being more detailed, being better at asking a little bit more for the details … There’s always things you can be better at and so, with it being my rookie season and understanding that, definitely brings a lot of encouragement to me,” Williams said. “Obviously, the situation is very frustrating because you want to go out there and execute. You want to go out there and help a defense that gets you the ball, or special teams that gets you the ball on the 50 or 40 yard line three times, four times in this game, and it’s tough. But, to be able to get up each time and do it again and again and again and again, it provides me (with) learning experiences. I think us as an offense, we do have to find it right now … It starts this week playing versus teams like Green Bay and Detroit and Vikings and all of that. But obviously, you have to take it one step at a time. But, right now is right now. We took this loss. We have to learn from it. We have this little bit of time tonight and tomorrow and then from there, we’re on to Green Bay and we have to find ways to do it. Simple as that.” All of the dysfunction and chaos with the offense failing to produce and a three-game losing streak after a three-game winning streak before the bye week has led to questions about head coach Matt Eberflus’ competence as a head coach. However, Williams defends his coach and remains confident in Eberflus’s coaching ability. “I’m confident in my head coach. They brought me here for a reason. They brought all of us here for a reason. As players, when we’re in the locker room, we know how good we are. We know how good we can be and right now, we’re not executing. We’re not hitting on (all) cylinders, and we have all the confidence in each other, to be honest with you,” Williams said. “I’ve been in some locker rooms, and I’m a young guy, I know. But, I’ve also been in some locker rooms that you’re losing and it's pretty rough in the locker room and obviously, after a loss, it’s pretty rough. But, (to) have this stretch that we’ve had so far and the confidence that these guys have in me, the confidence that these guys have in each other, talking about the players, I think that that’s a part of Coach Eberflus instilling that confidence and voicing that confidence of us coming together and being together.” The Bears play the Green Bay Packers in their first division game of the season this coming Sunday (Noon / FOX).
