QB Caleb Williams, CHI (1 Viewer)

[elguapo07]

He is going to make lot of haters eat crow. The dude was and is a generational talent. He has the potential to be Mahomes good. He just needs to find his Andy Reid.

I’m a Caleb fan and the haters are relentless. I think he becomes a better Donovan McNabb

 

[Faust]

Jacob Infante
#Bears QB Caleb Williams today:

• 32-for-47 (68.1%)
• 340 passing yards
• 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions
• 103.1 passer rating
• 6 carries for 33 yards

It ended in a loss, but Chicago has themselves a QB.

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[pinkstapler]

Looks like the "narrative" to blame the coaching staff much more than Caleb may have had some merit.... too bad Eberflus keeps losing them games. 14-31 as a head coach and a 5-18 record in one score games. 2-8 on calling challenges, with his last successful challenge coming over a full year ago. Defensive head coach who seemed to forget the OT rules and let the Vikes walk down the field into field goal range.

Can only pray ownership doesn't scare away some of the better coaching candidates and can land a Vrabel or Ben Johnson and help continue Calebs growth. I know some fans seeing the nightmare scenario of a move like bringing in Stink-oln Riley who seemingly did everything he could to ruin Calebs last year in college and that would be a crying shame. But also, par for the course.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I’m a Caleb fan and the haters are relentless.

That's interesting, as I don't see that overall.

Sure, he made some noise in college with the "F*** Utah" stuff. But other QBs have made noise too. By and large, the overwhelming consensus was he was a can't miss generational talent on par with Manning and Andrew Luck.

I've heard some Bears and USC fans talk about the "relentless hate" but it seems sensitive. Seems like a small and expected part of the overall narrative for him that is overwhelmingly he's one of the greatest QB talents in years.

 

[Ghost Rider]

You can see the talent, but he definitely feels like a guy who needs to right coach to bring down his worst tendencies and get some consistency out of him. He looked great at the end of regulation in leading the comeback, but then took that horrific sack in OT that basically killed their drive. Maybe that is NFL youth in that he needs to realize that you can't stand back there for 15 seconds, but once he did a great job in avoiding the initial rush, either take off and run or get rid of the ball right away. Don't keep duncing around back there and take the sack.

 

[pinkstapler]

I’m a Caleb fan and the haters are relentless.

That's interesting, as I don't see that overall.

Sure, he made some noise in college with the "F*** Utah" stuff. But other QBs have made noise too. By and large, the overwhelming consensus was he was a can't miss generational talent on par with Manning and Andrew Luck.

I've heard some Bears and USC fans talk about the "relentless hate" but it seems sensitive. Seems like a small and expected part of the overall narrative for him that is overwhelmingly he's one of the greatest QB talents in years.

I don't recall many/any reputable sources who provide draft and QB analysis with more of a resume than "I have lots of twitter followers" calling Caleb generational let alone saying he was the best prospect since Manning and Andrew Luck. Double checked NFLs own prospect scores and even they gave 6.74 out of 8 which correlates to "year 1 starter"; well below the "perfect prospect" ; "perennial all-pro" ; and even "pro-bowl talent" tiers. You have any of these sources from this "overwhelming consensus"? Because I'm not seeing any of that from Kiper, Yates, Zierlein, Jeremiah, Prisco... I don't know about you, but if I were claiming an overwhelming consensus believed he was on par with Manning and Luck at least ONE of those guys would be in that consensus, if not the majority of them.

And the relentless hate probably ties into the attacks on his character/personality/life style that rarely become hot topics for most other QB prospects. Dozens of articles on the fact he's cried after games, paints his finger nails, and has a pink phone case. It seemed just a tad bit over-the-line for supposed sports analysts to turn those things into weeks of "analysis" instead of things that actually impact his ability to play football.

The only narrative I continue to see is you having an awful lot more to say about Caleb Williams the past few weeks than anything else I've seen you comment on these boards. And it's all slanted the same exact way.

 

[Faust]

Bears' Caleb Williams improving under interim OC Thomas Brown

 

[Faust]

Bear Necessities: How Caleb Williams made NFL history vs. Vikings

 

[Faust]

Jacob Infante
Caleb Williams is a damn good quarterback, and we’re one day closer to Matt Eberflus not being head coach of the #Bears.

Losses don't hurt me now that we're basically out of the playoffs. Just fun to laugh at how bad this coaching staff is.

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[BobbyLayne]

3 passing TDs - first multiple passing TD game versus Detroit this year

Lions only allowed 7 passing TDs in their first 11 games

 

[Judge Smails]

May be changing my mind about him after that second half. Very impressive

 

[Harry Frogfish]

3 passing TDs - first multiple passing TD game versus Detroit this year

Lions only allowed 7 passing TDs in their first 11 games

Lest we forget, that was a banged up Detroit D, as you well know.

 

[-jb-]

Bears are an unserious organization. Kid did everything to get them back in the game only for the worst clock mgmt since the great storm of whenever.

 

[fatness]

Chicago screwed the pooch and Eberflus played a big part in it all.

This was posted Nov. 12.
Tonight's a good night to repost it.

 

[Deamon]

Bears are an unserious organization. Kid did everything to get them back in the game only for the worst clock mgmt since the great storm of whenever.

He botched that final play as much as the coach did.

Not only should he have rushed the team to the line quicker, called for the snap earlier, but he had 2 wide open receivers 10 yards down the field, that would have gotten them into FG range with time to take the time out.... yet he decides to bomb it into coverage which would take up even more of that precious clock.

 

[candian fantasy guy]

Bears are an unserious organization. Kid did everything to get them back in the game only for the worst clock mgmt since the great storm of whenever.

He botched that final play as much as the coach did.

Not only should he have rushed the team to the line quicker, called for the snap earlier, but he had 2 wide open receivers 10 yards down the field, that would have gotten them into FG range with time to take the time out.... yet he decides to bomb it into coverage which would take up even more of that precious clock.

I agree with this, yes the coaches did them no favours, but dang neither did Williams. Bears loose games in the worse possible ways.

 

[InDitkaWeTrust]

Bears are an unserious organization. Kid did everything to get them back in the game only for the worst clock mgmt since the great storm of whenever.

He botched that final play as much as the coach did.

Not only should he have rushed the team to the line quicker, called for the snap earlier, but he had 2 wide open receivers 10 yards down the field, that would have gotten them into FG range with time to take the time out.... yet he decides to bomb it into coverage which would take up even more of that precious clock.

Apparently he waited ~15 seconds for the play call to be delivered on that last play, realized they weren't going to have time to call a time out, audibled and then got the play off. You don't put that kind of clock management decisions on your rookie QB in that situation. Like the other 8 million people watching the game live, I was yelling at the TV for them to call a time out to regain some composure. At the very worst, you have 30 seconds to run 2-3 plays into the endzone or out of bounds so that you can kick the FG. Hate on the rookie all you want, but this wasn't on him.

 

[Judge Smails]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

 

[Chaka]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

Even if it was on Caleb to make that decision, and he most certainly has responsibility to do that even if he has been coached to leave that to the staff, Eberflus should have recognized things we're going sideways and called the TO.
Caleb should have been aware enough to see things we're taking too long but he was trying to do a lot more than Eberflus in that moment. The coach is supposed to be the calming influence but he turned into a spectator. Far more egregious for him to fail in that moment than Caleb.

 

[Stoneworker]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

 

[Chaka]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

 

[Chaka]

A: "How does one learn to not make mistakes?"
B: "From wisdom."
A: "How does one gain wisdom?"
B: By making mistakes."

That was a learning moment for Williams, he made a bad decision by not managing the clock better.

That should not have been a learning moment for Eberflus.

 

[Stoneworker]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

 

[Chaka]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

 

[Brunell4MVP]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

%

Ebeflus made the same mistakes pre-Wiliams being on the team. He's running out of people to blame. He's a horrible in game coach.

 

[Balco]

You can see the talent, but he definitely feels like a guy who needs to right coach to bring down his worst tendencies and get some consistency out of him. He looked great at the end of regulation in leading the comeback, but then took that horrific sack in OT that basically killed their drive. Maybe that is NFL youth in that he needs to realize that you can't stand back there for 15 seconds, but once he did a great job in avoiding the initial rush, either take off and run or get rid of the ball right away. Don't keep duncing around back there and take the sack.

Was just going to post something similar. The good news with Williams is he has top end talent, but he needs to play within the system. He holds the ball way too long and does not step into the pocket often. The line gets blamed but I think Caleb should share in that blame.

The good news is with the right coaching, there is no reason to think he can’t be an above average quarterback. And there is without a doubt offensive talent (although Odunze looks horrendous to be honest) - get Caleb more consistent and sky is the limit.

And the focus should be on the trenches, offensive and defensive line, in the draft and free agency.

 

[Stoneworker]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

You're talking out of both sides.

On the one hand you want the kid to grow by learning from his mistakes, which only comes from empowering him to make decisions in critical situations, but then on the other you want the coach to intervene and usurp his decision-making when it appears questionable.

Eberflus trusted Caleb knew what he was doing when he changed the play and that trust led to failure is what really happened.

 

[Chaka]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

You're talking out of both sides.

On the one hand you want the kid to grow by learning from his mistakes, which only comes from empowering him to make decisions in critical situations, but then on the other you want the coach to intervene and usurp his decision-making when it appears questionable.

Eberflus trusted Caleb knew what he was doing when he changed the play and that trust led to failure is what really happened.

That's not "talking out of both sides" at all. Two parties can be wrong at the same time.

Are you giving Eberflus a pass here? Are you suggesting he gave Williams all the power in that situation and decided not to intervene? For what? Instructional purposes?

No, if Caleb was empowered at all, when the clock got to 15 the mistake had already been made. It was stupid of Eberflus to allow the clock to continue at that point no matter what Caleb's role was in that moment.

 

[Stoneworker]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

You're talking out of both sides.

On the one hand you want the kid to grow by learning from his mistakes, which only comes from empowering him to make decisions in critical situations, but then on the other you want the coach to intervene and usurp his decision-making when it appears questionable.

Eberflus trusted Caleb knew what he was doing when he changed the play and that trust led to failure is what really happened.

That's not "talking out of both sides" at all. Two parties can be wrong at the same time.

Are you giving Eberflus a pass here? Are you suggesting he gave Williams all the power in that situation and decided not to intervene? For what? Instructional purposes?

No, if Caleb was empowered at all, when the clock got to 15 the mistake had already been made. It was stupid of Eberflus to allow the clock to continue at that point no matter what Caleb's role was in that moment.

Once Williams changed the play, the Bears were doomed. Blame who you like.

 

[Dizzy]

Caleb has all the physical tools and good mechanics, but he plays like a rookie... still holds the ball too long and seems to panic in tense moments. It's almost like you can see right away which plays he has command over and where he gets confused either by the defense he is seeing or lack of understanding of the full playbook.

Nobody expected much from the Bears this year so let's hope we see that leap in 2025. As I said before, he just has to survive 2024 and get back to work in the off season.

 

[-jb-]

Welp. Looks like ownership agrees that this was more on Eberflus than Williams.

 

[Dizzy]

Welp. Looks like ownership agrees that this was more on Eberflus than Williams.

Well, they're not going to cut Williams. Eberflus firing was inevitable, the timeline just got moved up after yesterday.

We all know the timeout should have been taken by the HC as soon as the sack occurred. It wasn't, chaos ensued, and yet another mind-boggling end to a Bears game was the result.

 

[jerry jones]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

You're talking out of both sides.

On the one hand you want the kid to grow by learning from his mistakes, which only comes from empowering him to make decisions in critical situations, but then on the other you want the coach to intervene and usurp his decision-making when it appears questionable.

Eberflus trusted Caleb knew what he was doing when he changed the play and that trust led to failure is what really happened.

Sure, you want the kid to “grow” and he should be empowered….however, the head coach’s job is not to just develop the quarterback, it’s to WIN games (unless there’s some owner directive you can point to) so, if his job is to WIN games he needed to step in there and take over that situation. He didn’t, he needed to go

 

[Stoneworker]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

You're talking out of both sides.

On the one hand you want the kid to grow by learning from his mistakes, which only comes from empowering him to make decisions in critical situations, but then on the other you want the coach to intervene and usurp his decision-making when it appears questionable.

Eberflus trusted Caleb knew what he was doing when he changed the play and that trust led to failure is what really happened.

Sure, you want the kid to “grow” and he should be empowered….however, the head coach’s job is not to just develop the quarterback, it’s to WIN games (unless there’s some owner directive you can point to) so, if his job is to WIN games he needed to step in there and take over that situation. He didn’t, he needed to go

I'm not going to defend Eberflus' body of work. It was horrible. And, yes, at the end of the day all offensive execution is on the coach to drill and rep in practices, etc etc.

But in this specific situation the play was called and the team lined up ready to go at 15 seconds.

Just run the damn play, Williams.

 

[Ghost Rider]

I agree with the takes that yesterday was more on Eberflus than anyone and that he had to go (he should have been gone weeks ago), but Caleb definitely has to shoulder a percentage of the blame for the last 30 seconds. Granted, it's not a huge piece of the pie chart, but he does get a decent-sized slice of it. You can't let the clock just tick down like that and then heave that kind of throw when you know you won't have any time, and seeing him deflect a bit of responsibility for it in the presser was disappointing.

 

[Chaka]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

You're talking out of both sides.

On the one hand you want the kid to grow by learning from his mistakes, which only comes from empowering him to make decisions in critical situations, but then on the other you want the coach to intervene and usurp his decision-making when it appears questionable.

Eberflus trusted Caleb knew what he was doing when he changed the play and that trust led to failure is what really happened.

Sure, you want the kid to “grow” and he should be empowered….however, the head coach’s job is not to just develop the quarterback, it’s to WIN games (unless there’s some owner directive you can point to) so, if his job is to WIN games he needed to step in there and take over that situation. He didn’t, he needed to go

I'm not going to defend Eberflus' body of work. It was horrible. And, yes, at the end of the day all offensive execution is on the coach to drill and rep in practices, etc etc.

But in this specific situation the play was called and the team lined up ready to go at 15 seconds.

Just run the damn play, Williams.

No consideration that Williams was not going off script to audible? QBs are coached to make the audible when they see certain looks, right? The play called most likely included an audible option. If Williams called an audible against an express mandate to not audible, then I'm on board with putting most of the blame on him. My contention is at the very latest the sideline should have called the TO as soon as Williams started calling the audible (they should have called it after the sack but that's another issue). If they didn't call the TO, they probably saw the same look and approved of the audible.

 

[Chaka]

I agree with the takes that yesterday was more on Eberflus than anyone and that he had to go (he should have been gone weeks ago), but Caleb definitely has to shoulder a percentage of the blame for the last 30 seconds. Granted, it's not a huge piece of the pie chart, but he does get a decent-sized slice of it. You can't let the clock just tick down like that and then heave that kind of throw when you know you won't have any time, and seeing him deflect a bit of responsibility for it in the presser was disappointing.

100% agree.

It takes a village and all that.

 

[Grahamburn]

A: "How does one learn to not make mistakes?"
B: "From wisdom."
A: "How does one gain wisdom?"
B: By making mistakes."

That was a learning moment for Williams, he made a bad decision by not managing the clock better.

That should not have been a learning moment for Eberflus.

Eberflus was supposed to know he was going to change the play and then run around for five seconds before chucking it deep?

 

[Dizzy]

A: "How does one learn to not make mistakes?"
B: "From wisdom."
A: "How does one gain wisdom?"
B: By making mistakes."

That was a learning moment for Williams, he made a bad decision by not managing the clock better.

That should not have been a learning moment for Eberflus.

Eberflus was supposed to know he was going to change the play and then run around for five seconds before chucking it deep?

Eberflus was supposed to say, "My QB just got sacked, 1st down is out of reach, take the timeout and discuss EXACTLY how the next two plays are going to go to make sure we give ourselves the best chance to attempt the FG."

Instead, HE panicked and brain-farted just like his rookie QB did... and froze like a deer in the headlights.

 

[Stoneworker]

No consideration that Williams was not going off script to audible? QBs are coached to make the audible when they see certain looks, right? The play called most likely included an audible option. If Williams called an audible against an express mandate to not audible, then I'm on board with putting most of the blame on him. My contention is at the very latest the sideline should have called the TO as soon as Williams started calling the audible (they should have called it after the sack but that's another issue). If they didn't call the TO, they probably saw the same look and approved of the audible.

Williams didn't audible because of a "certain look." He mistakenly believed the Bears didn't have any timeouts remaining and therefore couldn't run two plays in 13 seconds. So he changed to the home run ball. Sound logic, but in the heat of the moment he was obviously wrong about the situation. It's all in his postgame comments.

 

[InDitkaWeTrust]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

You call a time out at 32 seconds after your QB was just sacked on that exact same QB draw play. That gives you plenty of time for 2-3 plays toward the sidelines or enough time for one up the middle and a spike. It's not rocket science there. You just don't give a rookie QB the chance to make those mistakes in what was a critical game situation. At the very least you recognize that Caleb is calling an audible, call the time out and have 12 seconds to figure something out. You don't just sit there with your thumbs up your *** hoping that the rookie pulls out a miracle play. That's losers mentality and awful situational awareness. Ultimate the later is a big reason flus was fired in the first place.

 

[Stoneworker]

You call a time out at 32 seconds after your QB was just sacked on that exact same QB draw play. That gives you plenty of time for 2-3 plays toward the sidelines or enough time for one up the middle and a spike. It's not rocket science there. You just don't give a rookie QB the chance to make those mistakes in what was a critical game situation. At the very least you recognize that Caleb is calling an audible, call the time out and have 12 seconds to figure something out. You don't just sit there with your thumbs up your *** hoping that the rookie pulls out a miracle play. That's losers mentality and awful situational awareness. Ultimate the later is a big reason flus was fired in the first place.

So you don't just give a rookie QB a chance to simply hike the ball and run a play that has already been called? Huh. I would have thought a #1 overall draft choice might be capable of that

 

[InDitkaWeTrust]

You call a time out at 32 seconds after your QB was just sacked on that exact same QB draw play. That gives you plenty of time for 2-3 plays toward the sidelines or enough time for one up the middle and a spike. It's not rocket science there. You just don't give a rookie QB the chance to make those mistakes in what was a critical game situation. At the very least you recognize that Caleb is calling an audible, call the time out and have 12 seconds to figure something out. You don't just sit there with your thumbs up your *** hoping that the rookie pulls out a miracle play. That's losers mentality and awful situational awareness. Ultimate the later is a big reason flus was fired in the first place.

So you don't just give a rookie QB a chance to simply hike the ball and run a play that has already been called? Huh. I would have thought a #1 overall draft choice might be capable of that

It's just not smart coaching. If your QB is 2024 Patrick Mahomes, sure. #1 overall choice or not, it takes a lot of time and experience to learn the NFL QB position. Caleb has looked really good for the most part, but he's making a ton of rookie mistakes. I Just think in that situation, you take the inexperience out of the equation, settle your team down, and give yourself 2-3 min to gameplan the next 2-3 plays to put the team in the best position to win.

 

[-OZ-]

So you don't just give a rookie QB a chance to simply hike the ball and run a play that has already been called? Huh. I would have thought a #1 overall draft choice might be capable of that

We know Caleb tends to go off script, if you watched him in college or read the scouting reports that much is clear. As the coach, your job is to rein that in when needed.

 

[jerry jones]

This. The time out call is the head coach’s to own. Not the Rookie QB

The play call was in and the team lined up with 15 seconds to go. It was a QB draw. Snap the ball, run the play, call a TO, kick a FG.

Then at 13 seconds Williams inexplicably audibled to the Hail Mary and ran the clock down to almost 5 secs before snapping it.

That's on the QB.

Of course it is, and it's on the coach to realize things are going sideways and call the timeout to regroup.

No one is giving Caleb a free pass, but at least you can chalk it up to inexperience and growing pains. What's coach's excuse?

What's the play call after a time out with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining? Do you think the Lions' DC doesn't scheme accordingly?

At <12 seconds there is effectively zero chance of running another successful offensive play and running on the FG unit.

The only options the coach had at that point were a) call TO and kick 59-yd FG outside of Santos' range or b) let the kid go and hope he can snap and execute.

What would you have done?

Sideline routes, teams do it all the time. Defenses absolutely know it's coming, who cares? That's what you do.

Caleb dropped the ball for sure but the coach turned into a spectator and left him out to fail.

You're talking out of both sides.

On the one hand you want the kid to grow by learning from his mistakes, which only comes from empowering him to make decisions in critical situations, but then on the other you want the coach to intervene and usurp his decision-making when it appears questionable.

Eberflus trusted Caleb knew what he was doing when he changed the play and that trust led to failure is what really happened.

Sure, you want the kid to “grow” and he should be empowered….however, the head coach’s job is not to just develop the quarterback, it’s to WIN games (unless there’s some owner directive you can point to) so, if his job is to WIN games he needed to step in there and take over that situation. He didn’t, he needed to go

I'm not going to defend Eberflus' body of work. It was horrible. And, yes, at the end of the day all offensive execution is on the coach to drill and rep in practices, etc etc.

But in this specific situation the play was called and the team lined up ready to go at 15 seconds.

Just run the damn play, Williams.

No consideration that Williams was not going off script to audible? QBs are coached to make the audible when they see certain looks, right? The play called most likely included an audible option. If Williams called an audible against an express mandate to not audible, then I'm on board with putting most of the blame on him. My contention is at the very latest the sideline should have called the TO as soon as Williams started calling the audible (they should have called it after the sack but that's another issue). If they didn't call the TO, they probably saw the same look and approved of the audible.

That’s it, yup

You call a time out at 32 seconds after your QB was just sacked on that exact same QB draw play. That gives you plenty of time for 2-3 plays toward the sidelines or enough time for one up the middle and a spike. It's not rocket science there. You just don't give a rookie QB the chance to make those mistakes in what was a critical game situation. At the very least you recognize that Caleb is calling an audible, call the time out and have 12 seconds to figure something out. You don't just sit there with your thumbs up your *** hoping that the rookie pulls out a miracle play. That's losers mentality and awful situational awareness. Ultimate the later is a big reason flus was fired in the first place.

So you don't just give a rookie QB a chance to simply hike the ball and run a play that has already been called? Huh. I would have thought a #1 overall draft choice might be capable of that

ok sure, but when you’re now down to what, 15 seconds, 10 seconds? The coach has to step in call time out and say wtf.

 

[Stoneworker]

You call a time out at 32 seconds after your QB was just sacked on that exact same QB draw play. That gives you plenty of time for 2-3 plays toward the sidelines or enough time for one up the middle and a spike. It's not rocket science there. You just don't give a rookie QB the chance to make those mistakes in what was a critical game situation. At the very least you recognize that Caleb is calling an audible, call the time out and have 12 seconds to figure something out. You don't just sit there with your thumbs up your *** hoping that the rookie pulls out a miracle play. That's losers mentality and awful situational awareness. Ultimate the later is a big reason flus was fired in the first place.

So you don't just give a rookie QB a chance to simply hike the ball and run a play that has already been called? Huh. I would have thought a #1 overall draft choice might be capable of that

It's just not smart coaching. If your QB is 2024 Patrick Mahomes, sure. #1 overall choice or not, it takes a lot of time and experience to learn the NFL QB position. Caleb has looked really good for the most part, but he's making a ton of rookie mistakes. I Just think in that situation, you take the inexperience out of the equation, settle your team down, and give yourself 2-3 min to gameplan the next 2-3 plays to put the team in the best position to win.

If it was a manageable down-and-distance, then I certainly would agree with you that taking the TO at 32 would have been better.

However, it was 3rd and 26. So they effectively only had only one play to improve field position anyway. Of course it's debatable whether QB draw was that play but that's a whole separate topic.

IMO the fact that the team was lined up and ready to go at 15 seconds to execute that play is proof that everything was going smoothly execution-wise, and that having the TO in hand to use prior to the FG attempt was proving to be the right call.

And of course Eberflus could have called a TO at 10-12 seconds after the audible, but at that point the odds of both improving field position and executing a field goal w/ no TO's remaining were basically zero. It wouldn't have been the panacea most people think it would.

That said, all failed execution ultimately falls on the HC and the guy deserved to be fired for his overall poor body of work.

 

[FairWarning]

No consideration that Williams was not going off script to audible? QBs are coached to make the audible when they see certain looks, right? The play called most likely included an audible option. If Williams called an audible against an express mandate to not audible, then I'm on board with putting most of the blame on him. My contention is at the very latest the sideline should have called the TO as soon as Williams started calling the audible (they should have called it after the sack but that's another issue). If they didn't call the TO, they probably saw the same look and approved of the audible.

Williams didn't audible because of a "certain look." He mistakenly believed the Bears didn't have any timeouts remaining and therefore couldn't run two plays in 13 seconds. So he changed to the home run ball. Sound logic, but in the heat of the moment he was obviously wrong about the situation. It's all in his postgame comments.

Correct. When he started to audible at :12, Flus should have called a TO.

 

[Stoneworker]

No consideration that Williams was not going off script to audible? QBs are coached to make the audible when they see certain looks, right? The play called most likely included an audible option. If Williams called an audible against an express mandate to not audible, then I'm on board with putting most of the blame on him. My contention is at the very latest the sideline should have called the TO as soon as Williams started calling the audible (they should have called it after the sack but that's another issue). If they didn't call the TO, they probably saw the same look and approved of the audible.

Williams didn't audible because of a "certain look." He mistakenly believed the Bears didn't have any timeouts remaining and therefore couldn't run two plays in 13 seconds. So he changed to the home run ball. Sound logic, but in the heat of the moment he was obviously wrong about the situation. It's all in his postgame comments.

Correct. When he started to audible at :12, Flus should have called a TO.

It wasn't just making the audible. It was the fact that Williams' d*cked around for nearly 7 seconds before snapping the ball, therefore making it the last play of the game. It didn't have to be

 

[Joe Bryant]

This won't be popular as it doesn't fit the narrative but Josina Anderson with interesting reporting today.

Insider's sources indicate play before final snap doomed Eberflus - Pro Football Post

NFL insider Josina Anderson made three interesting points after speaking to sources in the wake of the Chicago Bears firing Matt Eberflus on Friday morning.

profootballpost.com

• Anderson said the head coach’s unpopular postgame comments following Thursday’s 23-20 loss at Detroit were made in part to protect Caleb Williams, who was familiar with the no-huddle play and knew he needed to snap the ball prior to the game clock reaching 15 seconds. Instead, with one timeout, the quarterback snapped the ball with five seconds and sailed an incompletion that hit the turf with zeroes on the clock.
• She added that after the team dissected the game on Friday morning, the film confirmed that the Bears shouldn’t have put Williams in that position. Errors, penalties and missed assignments – particularly on the next-to-last snap – doomed Chicago long before the final 32 seconds. On the play before, right tackle Larry Borom allowed Za’Darius Smith a free shot at the quarterback, Anderson said, on a play designed to be a quarterback draw; Borom had replaced an injured Darnell Wright in the third quarter.
• Interim head coach Thomas Brown was tapped to preserve as much continuity as possible around Williams and the Chicago offense. Brown replaced offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, fired by Eberflus on Nov. 12. The staff remains under evaluation, Anderson said.

 

[Grahamburn]

A: "How does one learn to not make mistakes?"
B: "From wisdom."
A: "How does one gain wisdom?"
B: By making mistakes."

That was a learning moment for Williams, he made a bad decision by not managing the clock better.

That should not have been a learning moment for Eberflus.

Eberflus was supposed to know he was going to change the play and then run around for five seconds before chucking it deep?

Eberflus was supposed to say, "My QB just got sacked, 1st down is out of reach, take the timeout and discuss EXACTLY how the next two plays are going to go to make sure we give ourselves the best chance to attempt the FG."

Instead, HE panicked and brain-farted just like his rookie QB did... and froze like a deer in the headlights.

The play call was a QB draw, right? At least that’s what I’ve read/heard. They needed the timeout if that was the play.

The QB went off script and ran something else. He continues to play hero ball.