Say what you will, Sunday’s victory was fun for many reasons. One of them was Caleb Williams and the Bears’ first team offense.
There were others, like Ian Wheeler, Tyson Bagent, Dennis Allen’s defense as a whole, etc., but the first team offense’s success, and more specifically, the design and operation, made this morning’s film watch as enjoyable as any in recent memory.
This one is a bit beefy, so let’s dive right into it.
Let’s break down the first drive for the Bears on Sunday against the Bills
We’ll start with last night’s opening play, in which we saw Caleb Williams under center with two tight ends bunched on his right, two receivers, and a running back, otherwise known as 12 personnel, something we’ve talked about a bunch since Ben Johnson was hired.
Pre-snap, Colston Loveland motions to the other side of the line, and the play is a play-action fake—something we’ll talk more about in a minute—with Loveland running a route behind the line of scrimmage back to the other side of the field and Kmet chipping before settling into a sit route. The wide receivers are getting downfield over the middle. The pre-snap motion and play-action shifts everything to the left side of the field, and Kmet’s chips push Bills defensive end Landon Jackson and linebacker Joe Andreessen away from Loveland, who is running a flat to the right side of the field.
Williams hits Loveland, who beats cornerback Brandon Codrington because Codrington bit on the play fake to the left side, for a quick eight yards on first down, keeping the Bears ahead of the chains.
Check this out:
The design has Williams and four receivers moving to the right side of the field at four different levels, with the line and the bulk of Buffalo’s defenders on the opposite side of the field, clearing up space for the run after the catch.
The run after the catch looks like something Johnson is scheming to be a significant source of chunk plays, and he’s scheming space for it.
On the second play, Johnson flips the script on Buffalo, lines up in shotgun with three receivers and Kmet at tight end, and runs four verts—a simple concept but different enough from the first look that it worked. Williams’ 29-yard completion to Kmet was his best throw of the night, and it came on a well-timed three-step drop, with a hitch and fire to Kmet in the seam, easily beating Buffalo’s 2-High look.
Before we get any further into this, I want to share this stat:
Play 1 Time to Throw: 2.55 Play 2 Time to Throw: 2.11Holding the ball too long was one of the biggest bugaboos for Williams last season. First two throws, one under center, one in the shotgun, and he’s getting the ball out in less than three seconds.
Williams is in the shotgun on the third play, and Johnson again prioritizes getting ahead of the chains with a quick hitch for DJ Moore on the left side, and Williams has the ball out in two seconds flat. Ahead of the chains, Johnson calls a run play from under center with a bunch formation. Williams’ boot to the right side of the field post-handoff, coupled with the opening play on the drive, gets Landon Jackson to bite pass, causing him to chase Deion Hankins down from behind around the first down marker.
A holding penalty on Drew Dalman negated the run and backed Chicago up to 2nd-and-14. In previous years, that would have been a death sentence for the drive. Last night, it turned into an 18-yard completion. Again, Williams is operating in the gun, three-step drop, and finds Colston Loveland breaking over the linebackers and has the ball out in 2.3 seconds, hitting the rookie tight end with anticipation. Loveland is just clearing the linebackers when Williams is locked on and firing.
Johnson and the Bears kept the chains moving with a five-yard run on first down, setting up another second and short-to-medium in which they could comfortably take a shot downfield, something we saw consistently on that opening drive. That play was the first time Williams had to flush the pocket and get into the scramble drill. He kept his eyes locked upfield, committed to finding a receiver, and found Olamide Zaccheus coming open on the right side. The throw was low and had to be off his back foot on the run. Honestly, Zacchaeus should have caught it, but there was no hard foul in the end, and the next play went for a score.
On that play, Ben Johnson has the Bears lined up with a three-wide receiver set on Williams’ right side, with Zaccheaus and Rome Odunze lined up next to each other in the slot with DJ Moore on the outside. Odunze takes the nickel to the middle of the field off the release, while Zaccheause works a delayed release up the seam.
The safety is in zone, and he initially commits to his left side toward Moore before realizing what is happening in the slot. That mismatch at the line creates enough time for Zaccheaus to have space in his route, allowing Williams to hit him in stride and on time, with his run after catch being created by Odunze clearing the nickel out of the catch space with his initial route.
Another example of Johnson scheming YAC opportunities for his receivers.
For those keeping score, here’s the TTT on all five of Williams’ completions on the opening drive:
2.55 2.11 2.0 2.3 1.6Even if we include the incompletion on the play fake from under center and the scramble drill (3.58), Williams’ average TTT was 2.35 seconds on the opening drive. We saw a mix of shotgun and under-center, personnel groupings, and formations, and Williams was on time, in the system, and played with anticipation.
We all said he needed to fix these things to take his game to the next level.
But what about the second drive?
The encore wasn’t as impressive as the opening drive, but it wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. Johnson opened the drive with two rushing attempts for Deion Hankins—one from under center and one from the gun—that netted five yards and a 3rd-and-5.
Johnson goes back to the three wide set on the left side, with DJ Moore in the middle, and Williams nails Moore on an out route to the sideline, with the go route by Zaccheaus on the boundary clearing out the space for Moore to win in single coverage to the sideline. Williams has the ball out in 2.1 seconds.
Once again, the scheme wins, regardless of setting:
Johnson uses Zaccheaus and Odunze to clear out space on the left side past the sticks for Moore as the primary, and even has Kmet running a drag into the cleared-out space as a safety valve for Williams if Moore doesn’t win his one-on-one.
Johnson used this formation on the opening drive but showed four verts on 2nd-and-2. Here, he goes back to the same look on 3rd-and-5 and does something completely different. Again, the same is different in Johnson’s offense.
Williams does something new a couple of plays later: he dirts the ball to avoid a negative play. It was a 2nd-and-10, and nothing was there. Instead of forcing the issue, Williams does the savvy thing and dirts the ball to live to fight another down from the same distance.
A pre-snap penalty on Buffalo moved the ensuing 3rd-and-10 to 3rd-and-5, something that would have gone the other way for the Bears in previous seasons. Now, we have another manageable third-down look for the offense. Unfortunately, a Rome Odunze drop on third down (ahead of the sticks) ended the drive and the evening for the ones, but the takeaways were undeniably positive.
Some more food for thought …
Last season, Chicago was in shotgun for 87 percent of its pass plays and 71 percent of its snaps. It was predictable and one-dimensional.
On Sunday, the Bears ran 55 percent of their snaps in the first quarter from under center and 43 percent of their pass plays from under center, most of which featured Williams and the ones. We saw multiple personnel groupings and formations, different receivers and tight ends in different spots in those groupings, and the staple of Johnson’s design, multiplicity, in action.
We also saw one pre-snap penalty by the offense, and the most efficient version of Caleb Williams to date.
So, no, we’re not actually casting for the Super Bowl Shuffle 2.0 in August, but we did get a nice taste of Johnson’s offense and vision last night, and a preview of what Johnson has been drilling into Williams since taking over.
You can have whatever excitement level you want, but understand that those things are translatable and will look more robust in a few weeks when Minnesota comes to town.
Dec 16, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) throws a pass against the Minnesota Vikings during the fourth quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker – Imagn ImagesHence then, the article about bears film room breaking down the first team offense s drives against the bills was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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