Ben Johnson praises Williams for performance vs Minnesota

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 5 hours ago

CHICAGO - Quarterback Caleb Williams got his second win against a division opponent when the Chicago Bears defeated the Minnesota Vikings 19-17 this past Sunday. Williams finished the game with a 50 percent completion percentage, threw for 193 passing yards, and had 26 rushing yards.

While the numbers are not spectacular, head coach Ben Johnson thought Williams had another solid game.

“The best thing he did (was) he kept the ball out of harm’s way. He did a great job protecting that football. I can’t say enough good things about their defense in terms of how they create turnovers. All these forced fumbles, it’s by design. It’s very deliberate by them,” Johnson said. “I thought our whole crew did a great job of taking care of that football and then Caleb in particular did a good job throwing the ball away when things weren’t present and so, that was good to see … We sat and we watched the tape and we had a couple opportunities there to really get some big plays potentially down the field and we didn’t capitalize on those. Those are a couple that he’d like to have back, but I thought all in all, I thought he played a pretty solid football game.”

It seems to be a bit of a question each week: who is going to get the ball more?

Against Minnesota, it was tight end Cole Kmet. Johnson is the type that rewards constant effort and dedication, and Kmet has shown that, despite not getting the amount of receptions he is used to.

However, he was Chicago’s leading receiver against the Vikings with five receptions for 45 yards.

“We came into this game wanting to be very completion driven and yet, when you look at the stat sheet, we weren’t as high completion percentage as we would like to be or as efficient and I think there’s a number of reasons for that. But, I do think that was him getting quickly to Cole was what we wanted to see this game. That was by design,” Johnson said. “I thought he had one early on where we got some play actions going on down the field type throws and it’s not there and he’s quick to throw him a good runner’s ball on the sideline. It happened to be on the Vikings’ sideline that he caught it and he turned it into a six (or) seven yard gain.

"But, ball location is paramount when he does that. A couple of those hurry-up plays, same thing. They’re bringing the corner pressures and so, they’re leaving the flats unattended to and he’s recognizing that quickly and getting the ball out and allowing Cole to run with it and I thought Cole, Cole played one of his best games he has so far this year and I get he caught a couple more balls. But, I’m not even talking about that. He’s great in the running game and then pass pro, we put him in some tough matchups there on some of their defensive (ends) or outside linebacker types and I thought he did an outstanding job throughout that and then when he was a ball carrier, you felt his presence out there. He was lowering his shoulder. He was stiff-arming. He brought our sideline to life a couple of times.”

After 11 weeks of the NFL season, the Chicago Bears are now first in the NFC North and third in the conference. This has generated a lot of hope that perhaps Chicago can really win the division. The Bears have not done so since 2018 and have not made the playoffs since 2020. They have not won a playoff game since 2010 when Lovie Smith was the head coach.

However, despite the history that is on the line, Johnson is not concerned about the playoffs and instead is focusing on the regular season, taking things one game at a time, starting with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sun, Nov. 23 (Noon / CBS).

“I haven’t even been thinking about that. We’re still in the third quarter of the season. That’s really what we’re focused on. We set goals once we hit the halfway mark and once we make it through the three quarter mark, then we’ll start shifting our focus,” Johnson said. “But, we’re in a good spot right now for where we want to be this quarter of the season and we got a tough opponent coming into town here on Sunday.”