Bears QB Caleb Williams (Post-Game Transcript)
On if the team made a statement with this win:
“I think every single game that we want to play and that we play is to make a statement and that’s just another game for us. Focus on being 1-0 each week and we keep doing that. We keep focusing on the noise inside of the building. Honestly the statements and all of that is more of the outside noise, more kind of stuff for you all to talk about, the analysts and all, to talk about. We will keep focusing on ourselves. We’ll keep focusing on being 1-0, we’ll keep focusing on finding ways to win games, but also find ways to better ourselves so we can be where we want to be.”
On beating the reigning champions at home:
“It’s a NFC game, and so it is very important to us. We understand what it is and what it means for us. But, going into the game, you don’t put that type of energy, you don’t put that type of pressure, you don’t put that type of focus or comparisons or anything like that. You focus on being 1-0, you focus on winning the game and however it looks, however it feels. Just focus on coming out with the win. That’s the most important thing.”
On Bears TE Cole Kmet’s touchdown in the windy conditions:
“Yeah, that’s the fun part about playing quarterback. It is dealing with the conditions and then finding ways to calculate where you need to put the ball and how much air, especially when you have such weird gusts that we had today. There would be no wind and then at random points there’d be super heavy gusts. [Bears TE] Cole [Kmet] ran a great route and they ended up dropping them and just kind of saw them flash. That play we haven’t really practiced too much, just especially this week with a short week. So it was something that we trusted, something we believed in ourselves as a team, as an offense, and as players and Cole ran a great route. Like I said, they kind of dropped him, saw a defender trying to catch up to him, just wanted to lay it out there, let the wind kind of push it back to him and Cole made a great catch.”
On whether a checkdown was considered for that play:
“I was about to consider a check down and I looked up, I had space and time. There was a defender starting to chase [Bears RB D’Andre] Swift. I ended up looking up, peaked up, saw Cole and like I said, gave him a good ball and let him go make a play.”
On Bears head coach Ben Johnson’s post-game celebration:
“He took his shirt off. He’s a man of the people. Let’s say that.”
On how important the run was to the success of the game:
“No, it’s not a surprise. We got elite backs, we have an elite offensive line and we have an elite wide receiver group that is willing to go put themselves out there and block for the betterment of the team. Even on a day where maybe we’re not going to throw as much, or the conditions are affecting it a little bit affecting the past game and things like that. So their willingness, especially with who they are, the type of receivers they are, where they’ve been drafted and how special they are, their willingness to go out there and block. It’s tremendous. It’s awesome to watch. It’s awesome to see from my point of view, but also, I can’t wait to go watch it on film and get excited about it. That’s the sacrifice we need, that’s the sacrifice that we want every single week from everybody on the field. So, being able to do that is tremendous for us.”
On the Bears stat of having two 100-yard rushers:
“Yeah, 1985. That’s a cool stat, right? Having that, I know it provides a lot of confidence within the coaching. I know it provides a lot of confidence in the O-line and running backs, especially that they can put the game on their back. They can do everything that we need to win for us and when it comes time for us to pass, whatever the case may be, we can do it. We did that today, but when it came down to it, we put the ball in the running back’s hands and they were an electric force.”
On how he sees the running game in real time:
“Yeah, it’s super fun. I don’t know if y’all ever kind of see me back there, but when I see a crease, I start to get really excited. I start jumping around like a little kid and so I’m excited for those guys. Those are my brothers and like I’ve said before, I get up every single day to go out here and work my hardest so that these guys can succeed. I’m going to keep doing that because it’s supremely fun to see smiles on those guys’ faces after games, but also during games when they’re being explosive. The O-line is doing a hell of a job, wide receivers blocking well, and running backs are having these big, explosive plays, so we’re going to keep chugging along and we’re going to keep winning these games.”
On if he thought the big rushing gains demoralized the Eagles:
“Yeah, I think anytime you start having explosive plays, especially explosive plays through the run game, you start tiring out defenses. You go in wide zone, you go keepers, you start misdirections, all these different things and they’re mental, I would say – it gets [tiring]. That’s what you typically see, but also physically you get tired. That’s kudos to our head coach and our offensive staff, then also, like I said, the players.”
On the fourth-down conversion to Bears TE Colston Loveland:
“He was one-on-one, the safety rotated down and they’re a match team. So he ended up basically being one-on-one and I just tried to give him a good ball. He ran a great route, the defender fell down. Those are moments, key moments where you have to give your guy a shot and he ran a great route and it was an easy completion.”
On if he felt relief that the defender fell down during the fourth-down conversion:
“When I actually started to throw the ball, I made sure I threw, because he ended up getting a little bit closer to the sidelines, I threw a little bit back inside once I noticed kind of mid-throw, the start of my throw, and I just wanted to keep him in balance and make sure it was a sure catch inbound for us in a big moment.”
On if he feels the team can play better even after a win:
“Yeah, I come in every single week and we work our tail off as a group, myself included. I want to maximize every single thing. That’s why I get frustrated, that’s why my frustration comes about. I have such a talented group, whether it’s the whole team, really special teams defense, but speaking on offense, we have such a talented group and special group and we got guys that really care. So, we can do something special for Chicago. The frustration comes in just because you want to maximize. You don’t want to waste time, you don’t want to waste a year or anything like that and that’s why we get up every day. That’s why I get up every day. So we haven’t hit our pinnacle yet, in the sense of a team and execution on offense, and we’re still winning these games. So that’s really important and that’s why I’m extremely excited. But, you go watch the film, you see all these explosive plays and you see all these small details that show up that are awesome to learn from after the game. But in the moment you want to hit those, you want to have these moments and just hit on all cylinders. So that’s coming and we’re going to show our best ball here soon.”
On if the Bears are going to have new expectations going forward:
“They’ll probably say whatever they have to say, but that really doesn’t phase us. That really doesn’t really deal with us. We have no expectation other than to go in, work hard, give our best effort on Sundays and every once in a while, Friday maybe. But, give our best effort and try and come out victorious. Other than that, the outside noise, everybody’s expectations, everybody’s thoughts. We could care less.”
On Bears RB Kyle Monangai’s 31-yard rush in the third quarter:
“Yeah, that was right after I threw my interception, right? We got the [Bears DB] Nahshon’s [Wright] fumble? Tremendous job by the defense to start there. When you have such a momentum swing and you give them such great field position, like I did throwing that interception. It’s kudos to them first, and then having that momentum swing back in our favor and then having a big explosive play is really important. It shows who we are as a team. It shows the adversity, how we fight through and how we show up for each other. So it was huge for us.”
On the teams ability to stay locked in on the moment:
“Yeah, that’s who we’ve been. We started off 0-2 and there was a lot of noise. We go on this streak of winning, a lot of noise. So we understand where we are, we understand who we are, we understand where we’re going to be as a team, and you focus on that. You focus on the betterment of the team as a group, and you come out with these wins week to week and you don’t let the noise, the outside noise, negative moments shine too bright within us and within our group. It’s a positive thing that we’ve been able to do this year and something we have to keep doing.”