After watching tape of Sunday's 35-16 win over the Jaguars in London, Bears coach Matt Eberflus on Monday discussed four things that stood out to him:
(1) Eberflus was ecstatic with several aspects of the offense's performance.
The unit scored five touchdowns for the second straight game—the first time the Bears have accomplished that in back-to-back contests since 1956—produced splash plays and rushed for a season-high 152 yards.
Caleb Williams connected on 79.3% of his passes for 226 yards and a career-high four TDs, becoming the NFL's first rookie quarterback since 2000 to throw for at least 210 yards and four TDs with a completion percentage of at least 75.
Williams completed passes of 31 yards for a touchdown to Cole Kmet and 28 yards to Rome Odunze and scrambled for 23 yards, all in the first half. D'Andre Swift rushed for 91 yards and one TD on 17 carries and caught four passes for 28 yards.
"I liked the fact that we got some explosives in there," Eberflus said. "We stayed committed to the run game. That's an important thing to have balance in this league because you can't become one-dimensional one way or the other."
Eberflus lauded offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for his play-calling and the creativity he showed, especially on Kmet's 31-yard TD. Williams faked a screen to the left and then the right before hitting a wide-open Kmet down the seam.
"We had a good flow going," Eberflus said. "The offensive staff is really doing a good job of helping a lot of those ideas and the execution piece with the positions. I thought [Waldron] called a really good game."
(2) Williams not only hurt the Jaguars with his arm but his legs as well.
The rookie quarterback rushed for a career-high 56 yards on four carries, all in the first half. Most of that came on scrambles of 23 and 19 yards on the same 85-yard drive that Williams capped with a 2-yard TD pass to Kmet late in the first half.
"That's always an important piece," Eberflus said. "You see different quarterbacks in the league that can use their feet at a high level but also are very accurate passers. I think that's a 1-2 punch you provide when you have an athletic quarterback."
Williams ranks seventh in the NFL among quarterbacks in rushing yards with 160 on 25 attempts that have resulted in 10 first downs. Most of those yards have come on scrambles versus designed runs.
"He's a strong player in the pocket and he's strong in the open field," Eberflus said. "He has the ability to square you up and then capture the edges and also be strong enough to be able to escape when people do have him in the grasp. He's a hard get. He's done a good job of that so far."
(3) Williams made some incredible throws, but his 9-yard TD pass to Keenan Allen on a back-shoulder laser beam may have been the best.
On third-and-goal, Allen ran down the middle of the field into the end zone. He was tightly covered by linebacker Devin Lloyd, but Williams threw the ball high to the outside where only Allen could catch it, and the receiver spun around and impressively plucked it out of the air.
"It was a really good play by both players," Eberflus said. "Obviously the protection was firm enough to get the play where it needed to be because if you don't have that, you don't have that play.
"It's really about rhythm and timing of that and those guys working on that particular route. They have done a good job with that in practice. Where it was thrown and the amazing catch that Keenan had on that particular play was really good. I'm not sure a bunch of guys can make that play other than Keenan. It was a really good throw and catch by those guys. The details were definitely there."
(4) Eberflus marveled at Kmet's contributions both in the pass game and as the replacement for injured long snapper Scott Daly.
The fifth-year tight end caught five passes on five targets for 70 yards and two touchdowns. He also was pressed into duty as the Bears' long snapper after Daly exited with a knee injury he sustained covering a punt late in the first quarter.
"It's pretty dramatic when you lose your short and long snapper," Eberflus said. "It's an important part of scoring points and getting the punts off. So there was definitely a lot of talk [on the sideline]. [Kmet] practices every Thursday. After practice he gets with those guys for the long and short snaps, and he does a good job. He's solid in there. I know he's always concerned that he has to do that. Thankfully yesterday we didn't punt again after the injury, so we were good.
"He was good in there. My hat's off to him. He had a really good game yesterday in terms of his connections: 5 for 5, two touchdowns. But him being able to [long snap] as well was instrumental in the victory."
