The Bears beat the Saints on Sunday, but didn’t win because of Caleb Williams. They won despite him.
Caleb Williams turned in one of his roughest outings of the season in the 26–14 victory, completing just 15 of 26 passes for 168 yards, no touchdowns, and a first-quarter interception that set the tone for an uneven day through the air. It wasn’t disastrous — the Bears’ defense and run game carried the load — but it was a reminder that the young quarterback still has plenty to figure out.
The most glaring issue continues to be Williams’ accuracy. His completion percentage has dipped below 60% in three straight games, dragging his season mark down to 61.1% — bottom-third among qualifying quarterbacks and far from the 70% goal Ben Johnson laid out when camp opened.
The problem isn’t one thing. Johnson admitted this week that the passing game needs to get sharper — routes, protection, play design, and execution. But the bigger issue might be rhythm. For long stretches on Sunday, Williams looked out of sync, drifting in the pocket, passing up open underneath throws, and spinning out of structure in search of big plays that weren’t there.
Williams insists he’ll learn from it. “I’m going to figure this out,” he said postgame. And he has to, because Chicago’s defense can mask his growing pains for only so long, and the schedule isn’t easing up. The Bears travel to Baltimore next — a team that, despite its 1-5 record, still has the defensive speed and discipline to punish a quarterback who’s a beat late. Sunday’s tape showed both how far Williams has come — and how far he still has to go — in mastering the details that separate potential from production.
Let’s dive into some of Williams’ Week 7 performance.
Oct 19, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) fumbles the ball against the New Orleans Saints during the second half at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Mike Dinovo-Imagn ImagesCaleb Williams Week 7 Stats
Dropbacks: 27 Attempts: 26 Completions: 15 Completion %: 57.6 Adjusted Completion %: 65.2 Passing Yards: 172 Passing Touchdowns: 0 Interceptions: 1 Passer Rating: 61.7 Average Depth of Target: 9.1 Short of the Sticks %: 50.0 Past the Sticks %: 38.5 Air Yards %: 47.7 Yards After the Catch %: 52.3 Average Time to Throw: 3.55Caleb Williams Down Day
Q1 | 3rd & 17 | 6:12
Caleb Williams INTThe Good: Makes the right pre snap read. Hits his back foot and the ball is coming out. Good anticipationThe Bad: Horible ball placement and stares down Rome the whole way. This ball needs to be to the sideline where the safety has no chance to make an INT pic.twitter.com/QvKSKxSGyf
— Steve Letizia (Formerly CFCBears) (@CFCBears) October 20, 2025There’s no way around it; this is an ugly interception. Credit to the corner, who perfectly plays this deep out route by Rome Odunze and jumps the route. Williams’ ball is slightly underthrown, making it look pretty easy for the defensive back.
If Williams is going to pull the trigger on this route against the coverage, he has to pull out his fastball and drive that ball all the way to the boundary, where Odunze has to catch it over the boundary, eliminating the corner’s opportunity to make a catch. He’s capable of it; we’ve seen it plenty, but I think I look in a different direction on 3rd & super long here.
Q1 | 1st & 10 | 7:58
pic.twitter.com/sqIupQWsFH
— Patrick K. Flowers (@PatrickKFlowers) October 21, 2025I loved this completion to Cole Kmet here. 12 personnel, pre-snap motion, Kmet runs the deeop over, Williams’ hits him on the designed boot—all very good stuff from Chicago’s offense.
Q1 | 2nd & 7 | 6:44
pic.twitter.com/A2EczRNjZ9
— Patrick K. Flowers (@PatrickKFlowers) October 21, 2025This is a great design, throw, and execution. Loveland is the pick guy, and he’s just sitting on his route, chest and head to the quarterback. The spot he picked was perfect, and the linebacker just runs into him because he’s locked onto D’Andre Swift.
This is an excellent example of the many ways Ben Johnson schemes space around the sticks and yards after the catch. The penalty negates the play, but it was an awful call. A similar concept ran on the opposite side later in the game, opening the space at the sticks for Rome Odunze, and it wasn’t called rightfully.
Q2 | 3rd & 7 | 4:22
Caleb Williams seeing Colston Loveland in a 1v1 matchup and changing the play to get him the ball pic.twitter.com/gj2SRD1kgS
— JetPack Galileo (@JetPackGalileo) October 20, 2025A good pre-snap decision by Williams here to recognize one-on-one coverage for Colston Loveland and check into the second play, resulting in a good hook-up for him and his rookie tight end.
Q2 | 1st & 10 | 6:04
pic.twitter.com/r6oupX2wRb
— Patrick K. Flowers (@PatrickKFlowers) October 21, 2025Although Williams’s day was not great overall, he found success against the blitz, and designs like this speed out to DJ Moore are a big reason why. New Orleans is in Cover 0, sending the house. Williams identifies Moore open and delivers a strike, allowing Moore to maintain stride and turn upfield, where Odunze’s deep route clears space for a healthy gain after the catch.
Q3 | 1st & 10 | 9:04
pic.twitter.com/HBOUIBfUMP
— Patrick K. Flowers (@PatrickKFlowers) October 21, 2025More great design and execution there. Luther Burden III is in motion, selling a deep go route before hitting a hard dig. The corner is giving plenty of space, and this is a route we’ve seen Johnson run as a go before this season. Multiplicity for the win again.
I will finish with this play because it was an example of most of the negatives I had for Williams’ misses on Sunday. On a couple of plays, he either missed the open receiver—and on a couple of plays, receivers—or made the wrong decision.
pic.twitter.com/Jf01LUvDRj
— Patrick K. Flowers (@PatrickKFlowers) October 21, 2025Like the earlier interception, this is simply a bad decision here by Williams. There were open receivers, the safety didn’t bite on the look-off, and Williams forced it anyway.
There were just too many instances of Williams not seeing guys or choosing the wrong guy on Sunday, and he’s probably lucky that he only had one interception this week against the Saints. For my money, this was his worst performance of the season. Just a lot of bad decisions and trying to do too much.
I included a few schemed-open executions here because I want to highlight that Johnson gives him options when he plays in structure, and he usually hits them. But for whatever reason, Williams went away from those too often against the Saints.
As Johnson said this week, you don’t want to remove that from Williams’ game because he can do so many good things off-script, but I’m sure he’ll try to fine-tune when he does it. Ultimately, this was a sub-par performance for a quarterback trending in the right direction. I’m not going to make it a bigger deal than it is.
Related: BN Bears Podcast Ep. 5
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