Bears' Caleb Williams finds great connection with DJ Moore

CHICAGO — Within three seconds of snapping the ball late in the second quarter, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had everything he wanted right in front of him.

The rookie manipulated the Panthers' secondary by using a hook after dropping back to pass to move Carolina safety Xavier Woods to the right. The opening created at the end of the play gave Williams a single up DJ Moore, who sprinted toward the end zone.

The number 1 pick in this year's draft let it rip without hesitation.

The result was a 30-yard touchdown for Moore — his second touchdown of the game — and helped the Bears (3-2) build a 20-point lead at halftime. The best performance of Williams' young NFL career coincided with Moore's Banner Day and ended in a 36-10 win over the receiver's former team.

“I’ve always wanted one of these,” Williams said. “DJ is such a special player and you all saw it today. He makes plays… When you have a special player like that on your team, of course you want to give him the ball, just let him DJ and be special. It.” It felt really good. We were super excited when we got to the sidelines and thought, 'We've finally done something like this.'”

The Bears' offense reached the 400-yard mark in an afternoon for the first time this season as Williams completed 20 of 29 pass attempts for 309 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions for a passer rating of 126.2 – their highest a Bears rookie a single game this year since at least the 1970 merger.

Moore finished the game with a team-high five catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns. The connection with Williams was highlighted by explosive passing plays that remained dormant through the first month of the season.

“It’s amazing,” Moore said. “What is this, week 5?” It took five weeks to get the down-the-field passing game going. If it hits, it hits, and it was good today.”

Williams checked the next box in his development after struggling to find his high ball accuracy in his first four games.

In Weeks 1-4, Williams was 5 of 29 (17%) with three interceptions on passes of at least 15 air yards – both of which ranked near the bottom of the NFL among qualifying QBs. Against the Panthers, the rookie was 4-for-4 for 108 yards and two touchdowns on deep passes.

The Bears' downfield efficiency came a week after Moore and Williams separately expressed frustration over their difficult on-field connection, which culminated at the end of the first half of Chicago's win over the Rams when the two failed to to connect in the end zone.

Moore blamed himself and vowed there would be no mishaps on similar plays in the future.

Sunday's performance showed that the chemistry is slowly starting to work.

“We’re just going to get comfortable and see what we can do,” Williams said. “…Just building trust between each other and trusting this offense between everyone. Offensive line, running backs, protections, the routes and the depth at which you have to run them and how many steps, things like that. Going through the readings and a few more.

“We have to keep building, keep going. Obviously a great win, but we definitely didn’t commit to it.”

After a slow start to the season in which he threw for 93 yards in his debut against the Tennessee Titans, Williams has made noticeable progress on a weekly basis. In addition to sparking the Bears' passing attack, Williams showed growth against the Lightning team in back-to-back wins over the Rams and Panthers.

Carolina blitzed Williams on 31% of dropbacks, his third game this season in which the rookie was exposed to a blitz at least 30% of the time. However, Williams produced some of his best performances against the increasing pressure, completing 8 of 10 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown against the Lightning.

Despite Chicago posting back-to-back wins against two of the NFL's worst defenses, the Bears' offense continues to make weekly progress.

For the second straight game, running back D'Andre Swift had more than 100 yards of total offense (73 yards rushing, 47 yards receiving) and a goal-line touchdown run. Williams involved the entire group of players around him, targeting Moore, Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen and Cole Kmet at least four times each.

“That’s good quarterbacking,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “That's just how it is. It's about finding the finish and hitting the shots on the field. We wanted to get our receivers involved today and we did. Cole was involved. We got (Gerald Everett) involved. We got everyone involved in the passing game. “So I think spreading that out, playing point guard and defending that way is really good.

As the week progressed, Williams and Moore prioritized the connection they had been searching for since the start of the season. It allowed the newcomer to take the next step in his development.

“He just learns really quickly,” Kmet said. “It's not easy, especially at this level. I just think it shows his willingness to get better every week. “Obviously he has the talent to be one of the best in the league, but he's done a good job and been patient with himself.” In a way… having that fire inside him where he feels the heat a little bit and knows that he needs to get better at certain things.

“Today there were things we can all get better at together, but his command of the offense has improved every week. Even much faster than I previously expected.”