Caleb Williams scrambles, scores first NFL touchdown vs. Bengals
Caleb Williams and the offense got off to a rough start, to say the least, in Saturday’s preseason game against the Bengals. But the Chicago Bears rookie found a groove – and he found the end zone for the first time.
Williams nearly had his first NFL touchdown pass to Rome Odunze, but his feet were out of bounds. On that same sequence, the former USC star had to scramble as he kept looking for an open receiver and directed traffic.
It ended with Williams in the end zone. He ran in his first touchdown to give the Bears a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.
Williams and the offense struggled mightily out of the gate with three consecutive three-and-outs. But the Bears turned on the jets in the second half when Odunze got the first first down on an end-around.
Williams also had some good looks, but the highlight-reel play came later in the second quarter. That’s when he escaped trouble and threw one right in the bucket to Odunze for a 45-yard pass, further showcasing the improvisation fans saw many a week at USC over the last two years.
All told, Williams completed 6 of 13 passes for 75 yards. He nearly had a passing touchdown to Odunze, who ran out of the end zone and ended up out of bounds.
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The first-team offense saw a full half of action in the Bears’ second preseason game after Matt Eberflus said the amount of plays would depend on the ebb and flow of the matchup with Cincinnati. Williams had a strong week of practice, as well, as he gets ready for his rookie season in the NFL.
As the Bears get ready for the rookie rollercoaster, Eberflus also called in a big voice for some advice. His former college coach at Toledo, Nick Saban, visited Halas Hall in a meeting documented on the premiere episode of Hard Knocks. The legendary coach had some advice for Eberflus about dealing with a young quarterback, and it’ll be important as the season goes along.
“It was really good to glean that information from him in-person. Talking about Tua and Jalen and different things and how he worked with those quarterbacks and really, helped them along in terms of development,” Eberflus said on The Pat McAfee Show. “It’s gonna be about the development phase of Caleb Williams learning through performance and through experience every chance he gets.
“We’ve got a lot of these competitive reps against our 1 defense. We’ve got competitive reps tomorrow against Cincinnati in a joint practice and these games coming up. And he has to level up and get better just by learning through the performance and the experience every single chance he gets.”