Caleb Williams and Geno Smith are in much different phases of their careers. The crossroads they and their teams will face this offseason reflect that too.
But anyone watching Thursday night’s game knows that neither team can be pleased with what they saw from their quarterback. The Seattle Seahawks beat the Chicago Bears 6-3 in an ugly, miserable game between two flawed teams. Each quarterback had a tough time and it left everyone to wonder what the future holds for them both. Only one of those teams has to decide if their quarterback will return, however.
There hadn’t been any points in the second half when the Bears finally put together a drive in the final minutes, trailing by three points. Williams made a couple of big-time plays to keep the drive alive, the first time Williams had produced much at all. But the drive stalled and with 20 seconds left the Bears passed on a 57-yard field-goal attempt to go for it on fourth-and-10. Williams threw an interception on a desperate pass, the appropriate ending to a horrendous night for both offenses.
For Smith, there will be more discussion over whether he’s the right player for the Seahawks (9-7), especially as he’s about to turn 35 next season, or if there’s a better option available. Thursday night’s performance won’t quiet his critics.
The Williams conversation will be more complicated. He was the No. 1 pick of this year’s NFL Draft; he’s in no danger of being replaced. But the Bears (4-12) have to figure out how to land a new coaching staff that will get more out of him than we saw his rookie season, and then get an idea of how much the team failed Williams this season, or how much Williams failed the team.
The offseason will be full of teams asking themselves serious questions about their current situation at quarterback and what they can do to fix it. The Bears and Seahawks have probably already started discussing it. If they haven’t, they should after what everyone watched Thursday.
The Bears have been dreadful in the first halves of games this season. Not that they’re much better in the second half, but the starts have been stunningly poor.
The Bears did not score in the first quarter Thursday night, which is nothing new. They have failed to score in the first quarter in 12 of their 16 games this season. They have 20 points total in the first quarter this season. Chicago had 25 yards and one first down in the first quarter.
The only thing keeping the Bears afloat Thursday night, and avoiding a fourth straight blowout, was that the Seahawks weren’t much better. Both quarterbacks failed to reach 100 yards passing in the first half. The Seahawks scored first on a field goal, the Bears’ one decent drive of the first half tied it with a field goal, and then Seattle took a 6-3 lead into halftime with another field goal.
At the end of a miserable, disheartening season that started with so much promise, Bears fans sat through the rain and cold to watch two flawed teams throw incompletions and trade field goals in the first half.
And the second half might have been even worse than the first half.
The score remained 6-3 deep into the fourth quarter. Chicago had what looked like a key fumble recovery at their 38-yard line, but on the ensuing drive the Bears’ offense picked up 1 yard and punted. The Bears punted on each of their first four drives of the second half.
Williams kept taking sacks, moving up to 67 on the season. That’s the fourth most for any quarterback in a season in NFL history. The Bears’ offensive line isn’t good, but one project the team’s new head coach will have is to get Williams out of the habit of holding the ball too long and trying to do too much. It made it hard for the Bears to sustain drives.
The Bears had a chance to at least tie the game in the final minutes. Williams started getting some yards running it. On fourth-and-inches just before the two-minute warning the Bears had a false start penalty, the type of sloppy mistake that bad teams continuously make. But Williams made his best play of the night, a desperate heave that DJ Moore pulled in for a first down. That’s the type of highlight that Williams sometimes produces, and gives the Bears hope that he can develop into a star. Williams had another big-time throw to Rome Odunze for another first down to keep the Bears alive. Chicago wasted a lot of time after that, which brought back flashbacks to the clock management debacle on Thanksgiving, and then called a timeout after Williams had thrown incomplete and the clock was stopped. Williams threw a couple more incomplete passes after that, the Bears went for it on fourth-and-10 and Williams threw one up under pressure, and it was intercepted to seal the Seahawks’ win.
This was the last Thursday night game of the season, and a reminder that we often don’t get the best out of either team when they’ve had just a few days rest. Smith was better than Williams but that’s not saying too much.
Smith has stretches in which he’ll play well, mixed in with negative plays that are surprising from an 11-year veteran. At this point the book is written on what Smith is as a quarterback. The Seahawks have to decide if that’s the road they want to continue on, and if something like overhauling the offensive line might help Smith out more.
Williams needs an offensive line, too. Before that, the Bears will hire a new coach and staff. They fired Matt Eberflus after a Thanksgiving loss, partially because Williams struggled so much this season. The biggest questions in the interview process have to be what each candidate’s plan is to get more out of Williams. It’s just hard to trust the Bears’ brass to get the hire right, considering they haven’t made many right calls over the past few decades.
For most fans, Thursday night was the last look at the Seahawks and Bears. They might each look a lot different next season.
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