WARE, United Kingdom – General manager Ryan Poles is pleased with the progress the Bears have made in recent weeks, especially how coaches and players have worked together to solve problems.
"I see a team that is learning, adapting, growing and improving week-by-week," Poles said Wednesday during a press conference at the team's hotel near London. "I've been very happy with the high level of communication from player-to-coach, coach-to-player to find solutions and find ways to improve every single week, and sometimes in the league that's hard.
"A lot of times we're looking at the problems, but you've got to have a solution-based mindset and that's exactly what our football team has done. That's what our players have done, and when you watch our games, I believe that you can see that each and every week, which is really exciting."
After a disappointing 21-16 loss to the Colts in Week 3, the Bears rebounded with back-to-back victories, beating the Rams 24-18 and Panthers 36-10 to improve to 3-2. They'll attempt to win their third straight game Sunday when they face the Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
"We're growing as a football team, that's what I see, from the first game until now," said coach Matt Eberflus. "We're learning and finding our formula for winning and I think that's an important thing to do early in the season. And the guys are really starting to gel together. They've always been close, but now they're really communicating well, attention to detail in the walk-through reps in practice and it's showing in the games."
The turnaround has been fueled by an improved offense, which has produced 10 touchdowns in the last nine quarters after producing just one TD in the first 10 quarters of the season. After the victory over the Rams, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron praised members of the offense –including quarterback Caleb Williams, receiver DJ Moore and tight ends Cole Kmet and Marcedes Lewis–for sharing their input.
Poles credited Waldron for "his openness" in adapting and adjusting.
"From scouting to coaching, we all have these philosophies, but at the end of the day, it's about the players and putting them in a position to be successful," Poles said. "So just identifying where Caleb's at in his process. Do we need to slow it up? Do we need to speed it down? Do we need to make decisions like getting into no-huddle and a tempo situation so he can get into a rhythm? Changing the cadence up, different things like that. His ability to adapt on the fly has been impressive as we've gone."
The offense's resurgence has been sparked by Williams, who has shown in recent weeks why the Bears opted to select him with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. In the first 10 quarters of the season, he completed 57.0% of his passes with no touchdowns, three interceptions and a 57.6 passer rating. In the last 10 quarters, he has connected on 70.1% of his passes with five TDs, one interception and a 109.8 rating.
"I think he's learning how to play professional football, and when I say that, that means to have a winning mentality in terms of, 'What does it take to win football games from the quarterback position?'" Poles said. "And you've seen that in terms of the efficiency, protecting the football, taking what's given to him. And then going into this last game, now explosives are starting to show up.
"So I really like his progress. I love the work ethic and the time that he's put into it, the grit and toughness, the ability to bounce back from tough games. He's right where he should be and he's continuing to get better."
Since Week 2, Williams' passer rating has improved each game, from 51.0 to 80.8 to 106.6 to 126.2 in last Sunday's win over the Rams. The 126.2 rating was the highest by a Bears rookie quarterback in a game since at least 1970.
"He definitely looks more comfortable in the pocket," Poles said. "I think it helps that we've created more depth to the pocket. That's important for him because once he gets vertical, he has the ability to manipulate and stay alive to keep his eyes down the field.
"But he does look more poised, and I think that's part of getting the reps and also understanding where everyone is going to be. And that trust too. I thought early there were some reps where he was drifting a little bit to the left side that caused even more pressure. So he looks more calm and collected and moving through his progressions."
Williams has benefited from a productive running game the past two weeks. After averaging 72.7 yards on the ground in their first three contests, the Bears rushed for 131 yards against the Rams and 128 yards versus the Panthers. The catalyst has been D'Andre Swift, who has gained 93 and 73 yards the last two weeks after being limited to 30, 18 and 20 yards in the first three games.
"We've changed a few things in our run game that allowed him to get going," Poles said.
"[And] there's some struggles that guys have that you have to identify and be like, 'All right, I've got to really focus on improving this,' and he's done that.
"Even in the screen game, I felt we were a little out of rhythm and timing, little details were off early in the season, and then you saw those things start to click. And then once you start adding all these different elements, you're starting to see the ball get distributed evenly across the field and there's going to be opportunities for bigger plays because you're going to have to be concerned about the different playmakers on the field."
