Bears QB Caleb Williams is 'built for these moments'
Bears coach Ben Johnson doesn’t need to say anything to Caleb Williams on Saturday.
He doesn’t need to remind his quarterback of the stakes of their first-round playoff game at Soldier Field — the Bears haven’t won a postseason game in 15 years. He doesn’t have to tell him about the opponent — the 213th game the Bears have played against the rival Packers is only the third postseason contest. And he doesn’t need to tell Williams what to do after a season in which he set the Bears’ single-season passing record and led them to their first NFC North title since 2018.
Williams knows.
“He was built for these moments,” Johnson said. “He plays his best when we need him to. And so, there's really not a whole lot that needs to be said.
“He just needs to be him.”
If that’s good enough to win Saturday, the possibilities are dizzying for a franchise that last won the Super Bowl 40 years ago. Williams would etch himself in rivalry lore, position the Bears as a contender to win the NFC this season and give fans something to dream on for the next decade.
“I think I am built for these moments, mentality-wise, how I've worked,” Williams said.
Williams can pinpoint the only time he’s ever been nervous on the football field — in 2017, when he started his first-ever varsity high school game as a freshman. Williams fumbled two snaps at Gilman School in Baltimore but finished with 140 passing yards in a 38-0 win.
"I think it's just the trust I have in myself, the belief in myself,” he said. “A little bit of that arrogant confidence on the football field. And then the trust and belief and who I have protecting me, the trust and belief in who I have calling the game. And then the trust and belief in who I have on the outside and in the backfield."
Since then, he’s played in college rivalry games — against Texas and Oklahoma State while at Oklahoma, and against Notre Dame and UCLA while at USC. He’s won two of his four games against the Packers — as many as Jay Cutler did in eight years and more than Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky combined. He’ll face them Saturday for the third time in six weeks — the first time that’s happened anywhere in the NFL in 13 years.
“All the big games are the same to me,” Williams said. “Doesn't matter if it was high school for me, whether it was college, or anything like that. Whether it was a game that's going to get us into the playoffs. I think the mindset of it just changes a little bit because you know you don't have another game if you go out there and you don't accomplish the goal."
Williams can’t afford another repeat of last week, when the Bears were held scoreless through the first three quarters against the Lions. Williams and Johnson have emphasized a fast start to weeks, with varying levels of success. In their last five games, starting with a loss at Lambeau Field, the Bears have been scoreless at halftime twice and held to three points a third time.
“We just came out flat [Sunday],” Williams said. “We don’t have time for that anymore.”
Johnson and Williams have tackled challenges together all season, which portends well for their partnership moving forward — and speaks to how far the two have come in the 50 weeks since the head coach was hired. When they met, Williams said he wasn’t even sure Johnson liked him.
This week, Johnson called Williams “a completely different quarterback than when we first took this job.” From moving under center after playing most of his career in the shotgun to cleaning up his footwork to mastering pre-snap motion, Williams has risen to the occasion.
“He’s played some good football here, particularly in the back half of the season for us, and we’re going to need that,” Johnson said. “We’re going to need him at his best. We’re going to need all of our players at their best. I’m hopeful we’re going to get that.”
Johnson has rallied the Bears to six fourth-quarter comebacks this season, the most in the NFL. In his last matchup against the Packers, he led the Bears to 10 points in the final 1:59 of regulation and threw a 46-yard walk-off winner to DJ Moore in overtime. In his first game against the Packers this year, he threw an interception to cornerback Keisean Nixon in the end zone with the Bears down seven with 22 seconds to play.
“When the games are tight and if you need him to make a play, he's going to do that,” safety Kevin Byard said.
If he does it Saturday night, Williams will make history.
“I feel that I've grown tremendously so far this year," Williams said. "It's exciting to see. That record was more or less the growth that I've had. That's where I've been at, that's where my mindset's been at. Then at this moment it's at an all-time high for myself of confidence.
"I'm going to go into the game that way."