Caleb Williams, Bears shows that a new day is dawning in Chicago

If the Bears played like that everyone On Sunday morning, Chicagoans could start their week with a spring in their step and a song in their heart. Hey, if the Bears played like this every Tuesday at midnight local time, fans would be tired but excited.

A Bears win at any time against any team is relished in this area because success has been so fleeting for so long.

That's why Chicago's 35-16 win over a woeful Jacksonville team at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was a most welcome start to the day for anyone whose luck depends on the Bears (4-2), riding a wave of football Go into a bye week with ecstasy.

Breakfast with the bears has never tasted so good.

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As usual, all eyes were on rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, who overcame a poor early interception and had four touchdown passes to go with 226 passing yards and 56 rushing yards. Senior receiver Keenan Allen had two touchdown catches, as did senior tight end Cole Kmet, who was also forced into emergency long-snapper duties.

Let's talk briefly about the latter.

I don't know if a Bears player has ever caught a touchdown pass on the long snap, but I found two related Kevin Fishbain-style fun facts.

Long snapper Patrick Mannelly had one pass in his 16-year career that was tricked to him by, of all things, Brian Urlacher in Champaign, Illinois.

On a fake field goal in the second quarter of a 34-21 loss to the Packers on October 7, 2002, Mannelly was called to center in a “swinging gate” formation and was unable to catch a pass from the Packers' linebacker Received the ball on a Flea Flicker Toss from receiver Marty Booker.

“Worked great in practice,” Mannelly told me.

As for other long snappers with touchdowns, in a cursory search I came across Hall of Famer Clyde “Bulldog” Turner, the all-downs legend from the 1940s who served as the team's long snapper as well as center and linebacker. On December 3, 1944, Turner scored a 48-yard touchdown in a 49-7 victory over the World War II-era Card-Pitt combo team. I'm assuming he snapped that game too.

Back to today: Kmet's double-duty tag was necessary early in the game because long snapper Scott Daly was injured. Kmet did a decent job, although his snapshot was a bit high on Cairo Santos' missed field goal in the fourth. We'll let Kmet deny that.

Story from the Sidelines by Cole Kmet –

Richard Hightower: “Hey Cole, Scott’s hurt.”

Kmet: “Tyler Scott?”

Hightower: “No, Scott Daly. You have to gasp for a long time.”

Kmet: “Oh… oh shit.”

— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) October 13, 2024

In all three phases, the Bears played a strong all-around game, overcoming a slow start that made you (or at least me) think the Jaguars would steal a win on the road.

But Williams led the offense to five touchdowns for the second straight game, and the Bears' defense forced two takeaways and held their opponent under 20 points for the fifth time in six games. The outlier? When the Colts won 21-16. The defense, of course, travels. Jacksonville helped the Bears with eight penalties (the Bears had two for 10 yards) and by playing mostly uninspired football.

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Before you start pricing Super Bowl rooms in New Orleans, keep some important context in mind: The Jaguars stink and their pass defense is terrible, just like Carolina, which torched Williams last week.

And as good as the Bears' defense has been, it's increasingly taking a hit. Defensive back Jaquan Brisker was unable to travel to London due to a concussion and Kyler Gordon had to leave Sunday's game early with a hamstring injury.

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On the other hand, things are looking pretty good on offense. Maybe coordinator Shane Waldron doesn't need to start looking for a real estate agent just yet. While Waldron (and to some extent head coach Matt Eberflus) have the most precarious jobs, Williams is under more scrutiny than any other young quarterback in the league simply because of the context of his workplace. The Bears' QB is on par with the Browns' QB as a cursed position, and Williams is the third rookie the Bears have tried out at the position since 2017. And being the No. 1 overall pick comes with its own pressure and history.

Williams raised some eyebrows around the league when he got off to a slow start, but he has shown why he can be quite different from his local predecessors. In his last four games, he threw for 1,050 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions (just one in the last three games). The eye test will show you that he looked good and sometimes even great. His attempt to intercept DJ Moore in the first half was negated by all of his beautiful throws, perhaps none of which were better than Allen's second touchdown catch.

Shout out to the 18% of people who founded Keenan Allen this week pic.twitter.com/FG79iiUCxa

— NFL Fantasy Football (@NFLFantasy) October 13, 2024

Mitch Trubisky set the Bears' rookie record in 2017 with 2,193 passing yards (in 12 games). Williams should have that record before Thanksgiving. Charlie O'Rourke has Chicago's rookie passing TD record of, uh, 11, dating back to 1942, and Williams is just two away from tying it.

Being the best Bears rookie quarterback of all time is just the first (small) step toward bigger goals. But it was a pleasure to watch his development in real time.

Now the good news and bad news for Williams and the Bears is that the easy part of the game plan is over. After saying goodbye, they play the Commanders in suburban Maryland. Williams, a DC native, vs. Jayden Daniels is the headline there. Then the Bears have a road game at Arizona and a home game against the Patriots before six dangerous games against the NFC North (with a road game at the 49ers in between). There we find out what Williams and the Bears are made of.

But for now, Chicagoans can relax and, for once, feel some joy that there is still a lot of Bears football left to play.

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(Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)