Bears quarterback Caleb Williams frustrated with accuracy issues

The throw should have been a touchdown.

After a 29-yard completion that put the Bears at the Vikings’ 28-yard line, down 13 yards, midway through the third quarter on Monday, receiver Keenan Allen was sent to the left flank. From there, he ran a double route, stopped and began racing past Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy up the left sideline. He was two yards behind Murphy when Caleb Williams threw a ball into the end zone.

The ball landed on the grass with a thud. Williams overthrew him.

“It’s frustrating,” Williams said Wednesday after a full practice session. “I hate missing passes, especially ones that I’ve been pretty consistent at for a long time.”

It happens too often.

According to Pro Football Reference’s metric, Williams leads the NFL with 97 missed throws, which are defined as passes that cannot be caught with normal effort. Jayden Daniels of the Commanders, the offensive rookie of the year favorite, has just 50. Bo Nix of the Broncos, another rookie, has 75. Like Williams, they have started every game this season.

The only two quarterbacks with a higher percentage of missed throws than Williams’ 22.2% are comically overwhelmed Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson and the Panthers’ Bryce Young, temporarily resurrected from the dead.

Only 71.6% of Williams’ passes are scored on goal, which ranks seventh-worst in the NFL. Daniels has put 80.2% of his balls on goal, the fourth-best mark in the league.

It’s a troubling metric that measures Williams’ development during a rookie year that both he and the Bears had hoped would go better. Williams’ inaccuracy would have been surprising at USC, where he threw 46 touchdowns and just one interception in the red zone in his two seasons.

The pass to Allen is a play that Williams wants back, said interim coach and game director Thomas Brown.

“That was a really good push against that from a coverage standpoint,” he said. “Rome (Odunze) did a really good job in the middle of the field holding the post securely and then Keenan did what Keenan does and won one-on-one on the outside.”

Williams detailed why he missed the throw – he stepped into the pocket and let his momentum carry the ball too far. He wanted to throw the ball instead of hitting it, fearing Murphy would undermine him.

He hopes it’s a lesson learned. Brown said Williams’ accuracy has improved recently but can still get better, and receiver DJ Moore said he’s mostly happy with his quarterback’s accuracy. But Williams only has three games left to improve, and he should limit his rookie mistakes by now.

“It’s coming,” Williams said. “The progress has become greater and greater for me over the course of this football season. . . (Seeing) routes and combinations of routes together and seeing all these different defenses and throwing all this footwork together.

“The progress has been steadily increasing, but I would say it’s pretty frustrating to miss some of those passes that I missed.”

He also missed an easier hit on Allen early in the third quarter. The veteran receiver lined up in the left slot and ran a pivot route back to the middle of the field. There was no defender within three yards of him when he jumped nine yards down the field. However, Williams threw too far to the right and the ball fell incomplete.

Williams said he had to practice the fundamentals to the point where they became second nature.

“When you get live bullets, you don’t think about those little things so much,” he said. “You think about much bigger things like pressure or coverage or the play and the routes.”

He is frustrated with his accuracy, but also with where the team is in what should have been a good season. Williams has lost more games this season than he did in three seasons as a college starter.

“Internally, it is human nature to do the opposite of what you do when times are tough,” Williams said. “The hardest thing is fighting yourself, especially in difficult times.”

Williams believes in the power of positive reinforcement.

“This might sound crazy, but to be honest, you’re talking to yourself,” he said. “You motivate yourself, you encourage yourself. It makes the days better, it makes the days when you’re going through a tough patch a little bit easier instead of putting yourself down.”

Williams tells himself, “I am great, I will be great.”

Bears fans are waiting for it, probably muttering to themselves like Williams when a pass falls incomplete in the end zone.

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