Caleb Williams, Bears showing that a new day is dawning in Chicago

If the Bears played like that every Sunday morning, Chicagoans could start their week with a skip in their steps and a song in their hearts. Hey, if the Bears played like that every Tuesday at midnight local time, fans would be tired, but ecstatic.

A Bears victory at any hour against any team is savored around these parts because success has been so fleeting for so very long.

That’s why Chicago’s 35-16 beatdown of a woeful Jacksonville team at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was a most welcome start to the day for everyone whose happiness depends on the Bears (4-2), who go into a bye week on a wave of football ecstasy.

Breakfast with the Bears never tasted so good.

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All eyes, as usual, were on rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, who overcame a bad early interception and had four touchdown passes to go with 226 passing yards and 56 rushing yards. Veteran receiver Keenan Allen had two touchdown catches, as did veteran tight end Cole Kmet, who was also pressed into emergency long-snapper duties.

Let’s talk about the latter for a second.

I don’t know if any Bears player has ever caught a touchdown pass while long-snapping, but I did find two related Kevin Fishbain-esque fun facts.

Long snapper Patrick Mannelly had one pass thrown his way in his 16-year career and it came on a trick play from Brian Urlacher, of all people, in Champaign, Ill.

On a fake field goal in the second quarter of a 34-21 loss to the Packers on Oct. 7, 2002, Mannelly wound up as the center in a “swinging gate” formation and couldn’t reel in a “pass” from the Bears linebacker, who got the ball on a flea flicker toss from receiver Marty Booker.

“Worked great in practice,” Mannelly told me.

As for other long snappers with touchdowns, in a cursory search, I came across Hall of Famer Clyde “Bulldog” Turner, the all-downs legend from back in the 1940s, who served as the team’s long snapper as well as a center and linebacker. On Dec. 3, 1944, Turner ran for a 48-yard touchdown in a 49-7 win over the World War II-era Card-Pitt combo team. I assume he snapped that game as well.

Back to the present day, Kmet’s double-duty day became necessary early in the game because long snapper Scott Daly got hurt. Kmet did a decent job, though his snap was a little high on Cairo Santos’ missed field goal in the fourth. We’ll give Kmet a pass on that one.

Story from the sideline from Cole Kmet—

Richard Hightower: “Hey Cole, Scott’s hurt.”

Kmet: “Tyler Scott?”

Hightower: “No, Scott Daly. You have to long snap.”

Kmet: “Oh… oh s***.”

— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) October 13, 2024

In all three phases, the Bears played a strong all-around game, erasing a moribund start that had you (or at least me) thinking the Jaguars were going to steal one at their home away from home.

But Williams led the offense to five touchdowns for the second straight game and the Bears defense forced two takeaways and held their opponent to under 20 points for the fifth time in six games. The outlier? When the Colts won 21-16. Defense, of course, travels. Jacksonville helped out the Bears with eight penalties (the Bears had two for 10 yards) and by playing mostly uninspired football.

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Before you start pricing out Super Bowl rooms in New Orleans, an important context to keep in mind is that the Jaguars stink and their pass defense is awful, just like Carolina, who Williams torched the previous week.

And as good as the Bears defense has been, it is getting beaten up. Defensive back Jaquan Brisker did not make the trip to London with a concussion and Kyler Gordon left Sunday’s game early with a hamstring injury.

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Conversely, the offense is looking pretty good. Maybe coordinator Shane Waldron doesn’t have to start looking for a real estate agent just yet. While Waldron (and to some extent head coach Matt Eberflus) have the most tenuous jobs, Williams is under more scrutiny than any other young quarterback in the league simply because of the context of his place of employment. Bears QB is right up there with Browns QB as a cursed position and Williams is the third rookie the Bears have tried at the position since 2017. And being a No. 1 overall pick carries its own pressures and history.

Williams raised some eyebrows around the league when he got off to a slow start, but he’s shown why he could be a lot different than his local predecessors. In his last four games, he has thrown for 1,050 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions (just one over the last three games). The eye test will tell you he’s looked good and at times, great. His interception trying to go deep to DJ Moore in the first half was negated by all of his nice throws, none perhaps better than Allen’s second touchdown catch.

shoutout the 18% of people that started Keenan Allen this week pic.twitter.com/FG79iiUCxa

— NFL Fantasy Football (@NFLFantasy) October 13, 2024

Mitch Trubisky set the Bears rookie record with 2,193 passing yards (in 12 games) in 2017. Williams should have that beat before Thanksgiving. Charlie O’Rourke has Chicago’s rookie passing TD record of, uh, 11, set back in 1942 and Williams is just two away from tying it.

Being the best Bears rookie quarterback of all time is just the first (small) step to bigger goals. But it’s been a treat to watch him develop in real time.

Now, the good and bad news for Williams and the Bears is the easy part of the schedule is over. After the bye, they play the Commanders in suburban Maryland. Williams, a D.C.-era native, vs. Jayden Daniels is the headline there. Then, the Bears have a road game in Arizona and a home game against the Patriots before a treacherous six-game stretch against the NFC North (with a road game at the 49ers sandwiched in there). That’s where we’ll learn what Williams and the Bears are made of.

But for now, Chicagoans can relax and feel some joy, for once, that there is a lot of Bears football left to be played.