With everyone watching, in a primetime game, former USC Trojan Caleb Williams put on a show and outplayed his NFL draft classmate Drake Maye. It did not matter that the Chicago Bears played their second game in five days. The Bears' offense came to play, and they were fueled by their franchise quarterback against the New England Patriots.
After Thursday night's game, there may not be any more Caleb Williams doubters left. Williams had his second 300-yard passing performance out of the four games he has played this season. His full stat line was spectacular: 22-33, 308 passing yards, and 2 touchdowns. It is clear that Caleb Williams has taken that next step, and the Bears offense, as a result, is unstoppable.
A really good New England Patriots defense had no answer against the Bears. Caleb's play propelled Luther Burden to a big game and Colston Loveland to have yet another big game. Oh, and Rome Odunze silenced the doubters, making 2 critical catches down the stretch in the 4th quarter. That would not have happened if Caleb Williams did not have the utmost belief and trust in him to recover from his poor touchdown drop.
When Caleb Williams plays like this, the Bears team as a whole follows suit. Drake Maye was not a scrub in this game; in fact, he looked like a top-10 quarterback himself. However, the Bears defense stepped up and made big play after big play. D'Marco Jackson led the Bears defense in tackles, and he got a monumental pick. Kyler Gordon once again led this game with at least one sack on the day. Right now, he is the Bears' best pass rusher.
It is hard not to leave this game thinking the Bears have arrived and they are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The 49ers and the Minnesota Vikings should have seen this game and thought this is the team we need to worry about. It is wins like this that clearly reflect how good the Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams duo already is. There is still a lot of the season left, but the Bears are on their way to something special this year.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Caleb Williams puts on a show in Bears' win against Patriots