Breaking Down Caleb Williams' 1st Start Under Ben Johnson

Chicago Bears sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams made his first start under new head coach Ben Johnson on Monday night. The Bears suffered an epic second-half meltdown, losing 27-24 to the Minnesota Vikings. It was an unacceptable result, but there were flashes of progress from Williams in Johnson's offense.

Williams went 21-of-35 for 210 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions. As a runner, the dual-threat QB rushed for 58 yards and a touchdown via six scrambles. Williams started the game in red-hot fashion before seeing his productivity fade throughout the third and fourth quarters.

Williams was 6-for-6 on his first offensive possession, concluding a 10-play, 61-yard drive that chewed nearly six minutes of clock with a nine-yard TD run. The next 10 Bears possessions ended with six punts, a turnover on downs, a missed field goal, and one successful field goal. That is less than ideal, and a late-game touchdown couldn't salvage the result after the Vikings scored 21 consecutive points.

Williams' accuracy waned down the stretch. His Completion Percentage Over Expectation (CPOE) of -13.2 tied Bryce Young for the worst mark of Week 1, per Next Gen Stats. Adding Week 1 to last year's sample size, Williams leads the NFL in incompletions due to overthrows by a sizable margin, according to TruMedia. He was credited with five overthrows on Monday.

Three of the Bears' meaningful second-half possessions lasted five plays or fewer. The lone drive Johnson's offense managed to string together was a 12-play one that leaned on their rushing attack. Williams took an intentional grounding penalty that resulted in a significant amount of lost yardage, leading to a missed 50-yard field goal.

With the Bears attempting to mount a late comeback, there was an egregious miss to Moore that can’t happen. The Bears’ WR1 was streaking wide-open into the end zone, but Williams' ball placement grossly failed Moore. This drive still concluded with a Williams touchdown pass, but the inaccurate misfire wasted precious time and was an unacceptable display of accuracy.

As mentioned, it started so promisingly. Williams reached a top speed of 20.29 mph on his nine-yard scramble TD run, the fastest speed of his career, and 10th-fastest by a QB since the start of last season, per NGS. The results aren't always consistent, but Williams is at his best when looking to create off-script explosives.

Williams' most impressive pass of the evening occurred on a 3rd-and-5 on that aforementioned opening possession. Williams escaped a muddy pocket to his right and threw a gorgeous ball to sophomore Rome Odunze for a 17-yard gain near the sideline. It was a terrific display of on-the-move accuracy.

Williams and the Bears will prefer to flush this result quickly. They play another divisional contest in Week 2, versus the fellow 0-1 Detroit Lions. Both the Lions and Bears are looking to avoid 0-2 starts within the competitive NFC North division. The Williams-Johnson offense must capture sustained results to evade more disappointment.

Johnson was hired to help develop Williams into the franchise quarterback the Bears believe he can be. The opening possession highlighted Williams' ceiling. The rest wasn't good enough, and the sophomore quarterback must continue working on his accuracy and consistency.