Caleb Williams runs wild as Bears beat Giants — but how long can he keep it up? | Telander
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CHICAGO - There’s nothing more exciting in the NFL than a quarterback running.
Why? Because the vital and fragile leader of the offense might break the game open or might get broken into pieces.
It’s the danger that thrills us, the joy of the prison break, the sprint for freedom, the cloud of doom.
It was all those things Sunday when Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams spun and twisted and dodged and sprinted his team to a remarkable come-from-behind 24-20 win over the New York Giants. Even when Williams didn’t run for yardage he avoided sacks and clobberings by mere inches.
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His gyrations brought to mind an axiom of pro ball—nobody on defense is assigned exclusively to the quarterback, but everyone is. It’s why you saw Williams wide open in the end zone for a receiving touchdown from receiver D.J. Moore in the Bears Nov. 2 win against the Bengals. After a quarterback gets rid of the ball, the defense figures he’s done.
And, in a sense, the same is true when the quarterback runs. If a play has broken down and the quarterback takes off, linemen will chase him, but no linebacker, cornerback, nickel back or safety is strictly assigned just to him. The open field is always there. But now, abruptly, every defender wants to kill him.
This is what I thought of as Williams broke out of a pass play to scramble up the left sideline for an amazing 29 yards—the longest of his career—late in the fourth quarter. The run to the Giants two-yard line promptly led to a touchdown pass to wideout Rome Odunze and cut the Giants lead to 20-17.
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It was a terrific play, with Williams outrunning (the likely drooling) Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke. He was hellbent for the endzone, refusing to do a safety slide. He went for it all, zipped past Giants cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, who barely tripped him up, staggered onward and then got truly blasted by Giants cornerback Andru Phillips with a vicious block to Williams’ throwing shoulder and arm.
It was the kind of reckless, goal line-or-bust run that can break the heart of the foes--or lead to the injury list. Or both. Running backs and tight ends can play with bum shoulders. Quarterbacks can’t.
Nor can they play with concussions. And we saw how that worked out for Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, a rookie who’d rushed for 66 yards and two touchdowns in the game, including a terrific 24-yard TD bolt. But he ran once too often, fumbling after a hard hit by Johnson-Gardner in the third quarter, ending with him whacking his head on the ground.
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Dart had had a great game up to that point. Mattered not.
"As he was going back out on the field, (he) just didn't seem right," said Giants coach Brian Daboll said of the next series. He wasn’t.
And there’s your risk/reward factor on display. In came backup Russell Wilson, who once was a great quarterback, able to elude tacklers the way Williams does, but now is a tired old retread. If Dart hadn’t gotten hurt, the Giants likely would have won.
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So how long can Williams do these amazing things with, as the announcers love to say, "his feet"? He’s played in 26 straight games, every one since he joined the NFL. That’s a nice streak, amazing, really. And his creativity and drive at the end of games is a gift. The Bears have won four games by a total of 11 points. Without Williams’ flourishes at the end, they could easily be 2-6 rather than 6-3.
What if he were to get hurt? The more he runs, the more it’s a likelihood. And the Bears without him? Disaster. Backup Tyson Bagent may have potential, but there’s a reason he went undrafted. Third stringer Case Keenum is a 37-year old mentor and published author who hasn’t played in two years.
Caleb Williams is all. I think of other running quarterbacks. Lamar Jackson is a marvel, but he missed three games already this season after injuring his hamstring. We can go back to Michael Vick and Steve Young and, yes, even the Bears own Justin Fields, who ran for a team record 1,143 yards in 2022. In one game he rushed for 178 yards. Wow. But he never was a big winner.
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Fields broke Bobby Douglass’s record of 968 yards, set in just 14 games, which was all they played in 1972. Douglass never was a big winner, either. It would be sweet if Caleb Williams can keep the late-game magic going, keep the running going—but do it cautiously. Be smart, think pass first, run a distant second. That thrilling risk we all love when the quarterback heads up field can end in a place we don’t want to see.
"I'll tell you, he looks like a Houdini back there," said Bears coach Ben Johnson. Let’s just hope Williams doesn’t go too far and disappear.
Dig deeper:
Want more? Read some of Rick Telander’s recent columns for Fox 32:
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- The Bears keep winning, but Caleb Williams still raises questions: Telander
- Don't downplay how the Chicago Bears win, but enjoy they're winning | Telander
- A win’s a win, but Bears still have plenty to prove: Telander
The Source: This article was written by Rick Telander, a contributing sports columnist for FOX 32 Chicago.