Bears News: Eberflus on offense and injury updates, impressed with Williams |
CHICAGO - After seeing the offense struggle throughout the first few weeks of the season, the Chicago Bears put together their best offensive performance of the season in their 36-10 win over the Carolina Panthers with 424 total yards, including 304 passing yards from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the first game for receiver DJ Moore with multiple touchdowns this season.
“I was pleased with the offense, the way they operated. For the offensive side, we really talked about being clean in terms of the penalties early in the game like we had last week. So, the guys were operationally were better there. I know it didn’t start out exactly the way they wanted it. But, they did well. The quarterback was clean, took one sack, had a quarterback rating of 126, and that’s good quarterbacking. It just is. It’s finding the completions, taking the shots down the field. We wanted to get our receivers involved today and we did that. (Tight end) Cole (Kmet)’s been involved, we got (tight end Gerald Everett) involved, we got everybody involved in the passing game. So, I think that’s really good to be able to distribute that, play point guard and be able to do that, hard to defend that way,” head coach Matt Eberflus said. “So, a couple other things. I thought the offense did a good job of using the roster, different guys in different spots. I think that’s really good, really creative by (offensive coordinator) Shane (Waldron). We were up-tempo at times, really creative by Shane, not necessarily snapping it fast, but being on the ball, ID-ing the defense. They obviously had some injuries over there at the linebacker position, so it’s very hard to communicate when you have young people over there, new people in there communicating. So, I thought that was good tactically by Shane. It was really good.” In total, six different players caught a reception, with all three of the top receivers in Moore, Keenan Allen and rookie Rome Odunze all having at least six targets. Four different players had at least 40 receiving yards. All in all, it was the best Williams has done this season with spreading out the ball to his different weapons. He also set two franchise records for rookie quarterbacks. First, he has the most games with at least 300 passing yards ever for a Chicago rookie quarterback. Second, he has 1,091 passing yards so far this season, the most out of any Bears rookie quarterback through the first five weeks. Right now, he is on track for 3,709 passing yards. Eberflus is impressed with Williams's progress thus far but emphasizes the need for him to continue to grow and improve. “He’s going to face a lot of different things - different looks, different defenses, different coverages, knowing his guys, know what he can do and can’t do but still keep everything in there where he’s good quarterbacking - and he’s just learning and growing, and you can see that,” Eberflus said. “During the course of these games that we’ve had and he needs to continue to grow, and he knows that. So, he’s just got to level up, keep leveling up, and every time we’ve challenged him, he’s done that ever since the summer, learning the offense, coming back better all the way through training camp, and now the season, just getting better and better every single week and really, that’s just continuity, time on task, good communication with the offensive coaches, with everybody … There’s a lot of things to learn from that tape.” Unfortunately for Chicago, they did not come out of this game completely unscathed. Once again, guard Teven Jenkins was forced to leave the game with an injury. This time, it appears to be an ankle injury, which puts his availability for Chicago’s next game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sun. Oct. 13 (8:30 a.m. / NFL Network) into question. Offensive lineman Bill Murray came into the game as a result, and Matt Pryor moved to left guard. However, Pryor would not finish the game as he got ejected near the end of the game. “In terms of injuries (Jenkins) was ruled out. We’ll see where he is. It’s an ankle. I don’t know that yet. Bill Murray stepped in and did a really nice job stepping in there from what I saw … He was physical. He was sound in there in terms of fundamentals. Matt had to go to the other side, which he did a good job with that. He had to do that last week as well,” Eberflus said. “Matt Pryor got ejected, and he knows he can’t do that. Obviously, we have to keep our water temperature to a lukewarm to hot but no boiling and sometimes that happens in that game. It’s a physical game, and sometimes, that dial starts to get turned up, and you got to be able to have self-control and turn it down, and that’s all it is. It’s not that big of a deal, but he knows that he’s got to be better than that in that particular moment.”
