Williams ready for another chess match with Brian Flores

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 2 hours ago

CHICAGO - This Sunday (Noon / FOX) will mark the fourth time in quarterback Caleb Williams’ NFL career that he has faced off against the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

Flores is notorious for his blitz-heavy defenses and ability to make the quarterback uncomfortable.

Williams said in his career so far, Flores’ defense is one of the most difficult he has faced.

“He’s probably one of the more challenging coaches that I’ve had to go against so far in my career. Obviously, I haven’t played every single team yet and every single d-coordinator,” Williams said. “But, up to this point, he’s been that. It’s all 70 plus plays that you have … He’s challenging you to the full mental capacity that you are and can be at, and so, this is always a fun game going versus (Flores) and his defense and all his players over there that he has on that side of the ball.”

Sacks were a massive problem for Chicago last season, which is why they invested such heavy resources into revamping the offensive line. However, that takes time as only one player who was a starter last year is still a starter on the offensive line, right tackle Darnell Wright. It takes time to develop chemistry and now that they are starting to gel more, the sacks have gone down. Williams was sacked 10 times through the first five games.

However, he has only been sacked four times since.

“They’ve been awesome for me and for us, and so, kudos to them and love those guys up front,” Williams said. “Then the other half of it is I think (is head coach Ben Johnson’s) emphasis on me getting the ball and then when it’s time to go make a play, make the plays and (when) it’s time to throw it away, throw it away and so, I think just doing a better job with that overall this year and I got to keep getting better with that and try and lower the sacks.”

There is something about late in the fourth quarter that makes Williams play at a whole different level. With four minutes left in the game against the New York Giants, Chicago was losing by 10 points, but they ultimately won 24-20.

That kind of efficiency is what the Bears aim to achieve consistently, not just at the end of the game. However, Williams also said the Bears are able to win however that needs to be accomplished.

“There’s times where we can just be better overall and then towards the end of the game, it’s time to go win the game and you just kind of get into that mode and like I’ve said before, defenses have kind of shown you throughout the whole game of what they’ve game planned for you,” Williams said. “So, you get into a rhythm, you get into a flow towards the end of the game, the mindset changes, I would say, just in the sense of we have no other option at that point other than try and score and fight and fight and fight and I think that’s what we do and what we’ve done and we do want to showcase, and I want to showcase, throughout the whole game that we can play all 60 minutes and we can put up points and defense can hold their offense and we can start steamrolling. But, until that happens, we’re going to keep winning games whichever way we need.”

In the first three games Williams has played against the Vikings, two of those games ended up being decided by a field goal. Nonetheless, in the eight games Williams has played against division opponents so far, he has only won once, although that win was against the Green Bay Packers. He will be looking to get his second division win and first win against Minnesota this coming Sunday.