SEATTLE — Quarterback Caleb Williams reveled what felt like the most impactful win of the Ben. Johnson era Monday night by looking into a swath of Bears fans at Lumen Field screaming his name. When he was drafted by the Bears, he said to ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, he was told that Chicago was always a Bears town, even when Michael Jordan was winning titles. He believed it now, sitting on a studio set more than 2,000 miles away from Halas Hall.
In the hours that followed, the rest of America started acting like that group of navy-clad fans. Williams had 22-1 odds to win the league’s MVP award entering the weekend. He was down to 6-1 by Monday morning, behind only the Bills’ Josh Allen, the 49ers’ Brock Purdy and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow.
Williams — and the Bears — are having a moment.
What’s remarkable is what it took to get there Monday night. Williams didn’t have any jump passes in the 34-17 win against the Seahawks, and he certainly didn’t have to rally the Bears for a last-second win. Rather, Williams willed the Bears’ offense to success with efficiency. He checked into better plays at the line of scrimmage even with the Seahawks’ faithful at full throat. He made his throws on time. He made few mistakes, becoming just the 14th quarterback all season to throw at least 34 times in a game, get sacked only once and not intercepted at all.
Given the degree of difficulty — the Seahawks had the league's best defense before Monday — he was remarkable.
“This was one of the more elaborate game plans in terms of what we were asking him to do …” coach Ben Johnson said. “That had a lot to do with their scheme. And we needed that out of him to make sure we were getting into a good play that had a chance.”
Even when he made a mistake, he found a way to fix it. Up by three, the Bears faced third-and-four at the Seahawks’ 39 with about nine minutes to play. In the din of a crowd sensing a turning point, Williams took a delay of game. The Bears approached the line of scrimmage to run their next play on third-and-nine but were confused. Williams had missed a word in his play call.
“The crowd was loud at that point and I missed a word, one word or so,” Williams said.
When officials stopped the game to confer with Seahawks Mike Macdonald about whether he wanted to accept the penalty, Williams made sure the Bears lined up properly. He took the snap and threw a sidearm screen to Kalif Raymond, who danced upfield for 39 yards. The Bears scored one play later to seal the game.
That didn’t find its way onto Williams’ MVP ledger — it was technically a run play — but it mattered. So did the way he helped trick the Seahawks for the Bears’ first touchdown. After Roschon Johnson ran to the Seahawks’ 1 in the first quarter, the Bears went no-huddle, with Williams — and most of his teammates — giving hand signals as if they were going to run the same play again. Williams faked the handoff to Johnson, rolled right and threw a 1-yard touchdown to Luther Burden.
Both those playsd take preparation.
“I want to be my best for Chicago, the organization, my teammates and things like that,” Williams said. “The more that I can do to be able to help this team, I'm going to spend extra time. Extra hours, extra walkthroughs, extra mental time to be able to have all the checks, have all the at-the-line stuff, these funky formations and all these different things to make it seem super complex for the defense …
“You put in all the work throughout the week to be able to have this feeling.”
Monday night, the Bears’ fans surrounding Williams could feel it. So could the rest of the country.
