Caleb Williams Gives Bears Fans Scary Visions of Past Disasters

Looking like a multi-layered rookie QB, Caleb Williams put up 363 passing yards and appeared to grow a bit compared to his first two games in the NFL. He had his first two passing touchdowns but also threw two interceptions.

Williams wasn't necessarily the problem against the Colts, though one of those interceptions was back-breaking, giving the Colts a short field not long after the Bears' defense had a takeaway of its own. He's having rookie growing pains and that's not surprising. It's not that worrisome -- plenty of quarterbacks struggled as rookies before going on to successful careers.

But the Bears still can't block -- inconsistent offensive line play, especially in pass protection, is limiting what the Bears can do on offense. The running game isn't working consistently enough to move the ball or set up play-action passes.

Perhaps nothing exemplifies the Bears' issues on the offensive line than the sack-fumble that swung the game. The Bears were trailing 14-9 with 6:46 to go in the game and the ball on their own 18. Plenty of time to mount a drive and punch it in the end zone for the lead, right? Even a field goal and a stop would give the Bears a chance.

Instead, Williams was sacked on the first play of the drive by Laiatu Latu and lost the football. Colts defensive lineman Grover Stewart recovered, and the Indianapolis scored a touchdown soon after.

Tight end Cole Kmet, who had a good day receiving, was beat by Latu on the play. So coaching may play a part -- why was a tight end, even a good one like Kmet, blocking Latu?

On the other hand, the line's numbers for the day were sickening. It allowed four sacks, six quarterback hits, and seven tackles for loss. That's not good.

And it's been a pattern -- the line struggled against the Tennessee Titans in Week 1 and was battered by the Texans at Houston in Week 2. Whether it's a question of physical ability, coaching, or scheme -- or some combination thereof -- is up for debate. What's not open to debate is that whether measured by statistics or the eye test, the Bears' offensive line is failing. That will make it harder for Williams to develop in addition to making it more difficult to win games.

We've seen this movie before. Williams may or may not be better, or have a potentially higher ceiling, than the man he replaced, Justin Fields. It's too early to tell. But it wasn't long ago that Bears fans were upset to see Fields struggle to develop in part because he had a leaky offensive line in front of him. Think back to that awful first game for Fields in Cleveland.

It's great that Bears general manager Ryan Poles has given Williams good pass-catching targets. And Williams has a great defense on the other side of the ball -- one that will give him a short field at times. But Williams can't do much if he's under duress all game.

Nor can he do much if the game plan doesn't help him. Bears fans were excited to see the former offensive coordinator get the boot. The word on Shane Waldron, his replacement, was that Waldron would work better at scheming game plans to help a rookie. Instead, it looks as if the offense has no identity or connection between plays.

To be fair to Waldron, any OC is going to look bad when his line can't block. But choosing to run an option play on fourth-and-goal was baffling. The play lost 12 yards.

The Chicago Bears have long struggled to have success at the quarterback position, and that includes struggling to develop rookies who were high draft picks. They struggled to develop Mitchell Trubisky. It's true that Trubisky's ceiling may be a veteran backup, but perhaps a better support infrastructure could've helped him be good enough to lead a contending team. He was never going to be a star, but we've seen plenty of middle-of-the-road QBs succeed when surrounded by the right personnel and coached properly.

The same goes for Justin Fields. While his game has flaws, it was clear that the Bears never quite figured out how to maximize his talents and abilities.

Enter Caleb Williams. Once the Bears decided that Williams had a higher ceiling than Fields and decided to draft him, it was clear they'd need a better support system in place to develop a guy who has been seen as a possible superstar. To their credit, they did give him better receivers by bringing in Keenan Allen and drafting Rome Odunze. And they did fire Getsy and bring in Waldron, in the hopes that Waldron would be better at bringing a rookie QB along.

But they never truly addressed the flaws of the offensive line, and even players who were reliable last year, like Teven Jenkins, have regressed. Waldron looks no better than Getsy three weeks in. Head coach Matt Eberflus is a defensive guru, not a quarterback teacher. At least he's apparently well-liked by his players.

Williams may be just as talented as his draft position would suggest. But, he's going to need proper coaching and a line that won't have him running for his life on a constant basis. The jury is still out on the former and he clearly doesn't have the latter, at least right now.

Same old Chicago Bears.

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