I’m a little tired of seeing those quick throws to the outside almost get intercepted. OK. A lot tired.
You can see why Ben Johnson is always saying that Williams needs to dump the ball off. Williams drops back and holds the ball too long. We know that. He can’t stand to just let the play go and take the yardage. If he just did that sooner, the offense would run a lot smoother.
Having said that, I did notice as the game went on that Williams was more apt to take the short, dump-off pass over the middle, but it seemed like it was inevitably at least a beat late and on third down when teams keyed on it and stopped it well short. Those throws need to come on first and second down when everyone is covered, and they need to come faster.
The offensive line looked good today to me. Williams got good protection against a good rash rushing defensive front, and they blocked effectively against a team that knew the Bears wanted to run the ball. But see my comment about the free runners on the blitz below.
I thought Williams’ accuracy was better today than it has been.
We saw blitz after blitz today come free off the edge. I’m not sure who was responsible for what, but that needs to be cleaned up.
Defense
Greg Olsen did a great job on color today. He was on top of everything.
The Bears came out very evidently prepared to stop the run on a bad weather day for passing. I thought the defensive line did a good job of penetrating to stop it.
Jaquan Brisker was sneaking up onto the line of scrimmage late in the count. He served as an extra defender in the box on run plays and was in position to blitz pass plays.
Teams continue to pick on Tyrique Stevenson over Nashon Wright, who, in theory, is behind him on the depth chart. This was supposed to be Stevenson’s year to emerge. If things continue like this, we probably won’t see him back next year. In fairness, explosive plays killed the Bears today. All of the cornerbacks were struggling to some extent.
The Bears should have known how mobile Jackson Dart was and how much damage he can do on the ground. They were spying him on occasion, but the linebackers couldn’t keep up with him.
Dart also had a good day throwing the ball. You wonder what Williams thought as Dart tossed up 50-50 balls and watched his guys come down time after time with it.
I thought it was interesting that Dart’s legs eventually forced the Bears into more zone defense so that all of the defensive backs could keep themselves facing the quarterback.
And, finally, I don’t think I need say that Dart’s impact on this game couldn’t have been more apparent than when you compare what the Giants looked like with him in there with what they looked like after he got hurt and was replaced by Russell Wilson.
Miscellaneous
Too many drops in the cold weather today. The Bears had at least five and at least one in the end zone.
I continue to be dissatisfied with the Bears kickoff return and coverage teams. The difference in yardage given up versus the yardage gained seems very significant to me. It’s putting the offense and the defense both at a disadvantage.
Penalties were much better today. They need to keep that up.
Maybe it was just me, but something about FOX’s on-screen graphics reminded me of old broadcasts of games from the 1980s. Maybe it was the font? It was very weird to me.
I thought that Caleb Williams was better today. His accuracy was better, and I thought the ball was coming out faster, especially as the game progressed. He’s still late with his reads on occasion. But better. I really shouldn’t say this about a defense that only gave up only 20 points, but I really don’t care. I think they continue to be a mess, especially in the defensive backfield. But that is no surprise, and this year is really about Williams, anyway (just keep reminding yourself of that).
