Bears quarterback Caleb Williams reacts during Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
AP
Look, it’s obvious what everyone is thinking about the Bears right now.
The New England Patriots were a bad franchise that never won anything, then Tom Brady showed up.
The Kansas City Chiefs were invisible and irrelevant for roughly 50 yards before Patrick Mahomes happened.
Even the saddest NFL franchises can turn into dynasties by landing the perfect quarterback. The Bears have their guy in rookie Caleb Williams. Make room in the trophy case.
Check that, there’s actually plenty of room in the trophy case at Halas Hall. Got a little carried away there.
Anyway, Bears fans should be excited about Caleb Williams. He made some incredible throws Saturday against Cincinnati. Receiver Rome Odunze could be Williams’ version of Lynn Swann, Jerry Rice or Boyd Dowler.
There is reason to keep the Super Bowl shuttle in the garage, however. A second team was on the field Saturday, one that talked all week about not playing its starters.
The responsible path here is to point out that when Williams made those great throws on the run in the second quarter, the Bengals had their third-string defenders on the field, at least in the front seven.
Let’s say that again. This wasn’t the Bengals’ second-team defensive linemen, the players who started the game. Those guys were all lounging on the sideline. This was Williams, running for his life, against Cincinnati’s third-string defensive line, while the Bears were still using all five starters on the offensive line.
Despite being the only team using its starters, the Bears were outgained 69-16 during the first three possessions. That’s not a performance worth any hype.
It’s not accurate to say the Bengals sat all 22 starters. A few regulars in the defensive secondary played in the first two series, when the Bears completed one pass for 3 yards. No offensive starters took the field for the Bengals, unless you count kicker Evan McPherson. Cincinnati’s starting offensive line was three rookies and a guy who was inactive for all 17 games last season.
Cincinnati’s leading tackler was Stevenson grad Maema Njongmeta, an undrafted rookie linebacker from Wisconsin. On the play where Williams juked a Bengals lineman in the backfield, then fired a pass to Odunze, who was standing out of bounds in the corner of the end zone — the defensive lineman giving chase was Neuqua Valley grad Justin Blazek, an undrafted rookie from Division 3 Wisconsin-Platteville.
As great as it is to see local players do well, undrafted rookie free agents are generally long shots to make an NFL roster. No disrespect to any player on the field Saturday, but these weren’t the guys who will be playing in the regular season.
The Tyler Scott pass interference, Odunze’s 45-yard over-the-shoulder catch, and Dante Pettis’ first touchdown from Tyson Bagent had something in common — the same defender, rookie corner Josh Newton, a fifth-round pick from TCU. Better cornerbacks await.
Cincinnati’s quarterbacks were Toledo’s Logan Woodside and NIU’s Rocky Lombardi. While the Bears were dreaming of Super Bowls, the Bengals brought weekday MACtion to Soldier Field.
Think I’m joking? During his stellar career at Toledo, Woodside played against Northern Illinois three times. The games were played on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. One of them took place at Guaranteed Rate Field.
But sure, go ahead and shoot the Spidey webs after knocking down the third-string QB with an unblocked corner blitz. Woo-hoo.
Make no mistake, Williams is very good and the Bears could be headed for an entertaining era. Having his best receivers on the field full-time should help. But when it takes five drives to reach the end zone against a bunch of Cincinnati subs, Super Bowl dreams are not recommended.