On Monday evening, the Chicago Bears dropped to 0-1 on the young NFL season with a brutal home loss to the Minnesota Vikings in front of a nationally televised audience. The Bears dominated this game early on despite playing without multiple defensive starters but ultimately fell off a cliff in the fourth quarter with quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense going stagnant at the worst possible time.
It wasn't a great start to Williams' second season in the NFL, one that Bears fans are hoping will look a lot different under new head coach and former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, but that still didn't stop former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner from singing Williams' praises on Tuesday.
“Just finished the #CalebWilliams film & thought it was pretty darn good! Here’s how I would grade him: 1st Half: 2 ++: making a play that not everyone makes 12 +: Right play for QB 1 +-: Missed something but made up for it with positive 1 O: play out to his hands 4 -: Bad plays in some form,” wrote Warner on X, formerly Twitter.
Warner then went on to describe how he would grade Williams' second half.
“2nd Half: 2 ++, 13 +, 5 O, 6 – Total for 46 plays: 4++, 25 +, 1 +-, 6 O, 10 – Don’t have time to do for every QB but overall that’s a really solid game… one caveat is a couple of the minuses were big play misses, but it happens to every QB!” he wrote.
A tough start for the Bears
Things went from great to awful for the Bears in a matter of minutes on Monday as the offense went completely silent in the second half and the dam finally broke on defense once Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy started to figure some things out.
While the Bears' offensive line looked improved from a year ago, and Williams did appear to cut down on some of the backyard football-like plays that he relied upon a year ago, it still resulted in a result that has become a familiar one for Bears fans over the last decade plus.
The Bears will now turn their attention to Week 2, where they will hit the road to take on the Detroit Lions in Ben Johnson's return to face his old team.
