‘Much worse’ feeling about Caleb Williams following Bears’ loss to Vikings | FIRST THINGS FIRST

‘Much worse’ feeling about Caleb Williams following Bears’ loss to Vikings | FIRST THINGS FIRST

I have no sound. I didn’t know we were starting. I was talking about old Chiefs teams. Sorry. My bad to it. Here we go. We’re back. Now we’re back about the good old days. I got you, Dust. It was It was from last year we were talking about. What up, KW? On the ropes. He was looking back wisfully. On the ropes. Who’s on the ropes? You just did a long siloquy. You didn’t even recognize that Brew was in like nod mode. Brew asked me a question was in nod mode. Brew does not like to talk 2 minutes before the show. You like this is and you kept on going like this is what I said before the show. You were just on the what I said before the show was accurate. Which is I have my goal of the next three days is to repair our relationship. You and me, Ko, we’re good. Drew it. It He’s mad at me. I I don’t know why. He’s like my wife. Like like I know you’re mad. You keep saying you’re not mad. Just tell me why you’re mad because we’re about to be out in public in Kansas City together and we need to present. All right. I don’t want to be weird. I’m not mad. The chiefs are just 0 and one and your emotions are scrambled. You’re seeing anger everywhere. Like this wife. It’s not what it is. It’s just our 0 in one. That’s it. Can I tell you something? That’s what it is. I think you’re right. Yeah. Uh we start with the Bears. Caleb was 10 for 10. Like, man, this is really working. Chicago is rolling and then the wheels came off. Two touchdowns, 210 yards overall, but he only completed 44% of the rest of his passes. That’s not good. Do you feel better or worse about Caleb and the Bears? All right. Can I tell you guys something? Oh, here we go. Man, you are just on tilt, dude. I’m not on tilt. two straight. I just I just have to tell you guys something. Okay, so I don’t live tweet Chiefs games, but I live tweet basically any other standalone game. I’m usually live tweeting. And I’m known to be, you know, a little bit of a smart alec, particularly if some of my takes look like they’re going to prove correct. you and something struck me as concerning because in the midst of Caleb starting 10 for 10 I didn’t want to tweet because watching it I was like I don’t think this is going to keep up. You agree? Exactly where I was with the Ravens. Oh wow. And with the Bills, I was like, because because even with that start, some of it was so hard like he had to twice do kind of magical things to get a dump off, you know what I mean? Like they do spin around and escape to end up checking down. And so the answer to the question is I feel much worse. And it started with the Tyler Dunn article on his website over the weekend which talked about the dysfunction of last year that personality, work ethic or other potential issues that might prevent Caleb from reaching his full potential. It then during this game it was so bad pre- snap and that’s and I coach Manini might over you know emphasize that but he did call someone into motion with 3 seconds on the play clock. They were getting out of the huddle late. They the penalties, which we can show you, there were a bunch of penalties. They’re not all on Caleb. The pre- snap ones are not even all on Caleb because it’s false start. You know what I mean? Like the but some of them are. Yeah. And the fact that he seems to be at this point in his career a bit of an emotional roller coaster because he had not missed a pass until the fourth down that he missed badly. Yeah. And then he you instantly saw him doing this thing on the bench again. Now, he did I don’t want to say he snapped out of it, but it’s not like, you know, he was, but he he was different player after that. It he’s he’s a player that you the talent is undeniable. The play on the sideline is undeniable that only a handful of guys in the whole league can make. But when if it was just that the pre-nap stuff is bad, then I deal with that to get that. Sure. But when you add to it, he also missed some layups that would have won them the game. Like easy passes, you know what I mean? The fourth down should have been an easy pass. He had a touchdown to Rome that could have been or DJ Moore, pardon me. And so I I am not out on Caleb Williams. I am pumping the brakes on my own wow timeline of when he will become a great player because I think he is further behind than he should be his first start of year two. I do feel that way. This is a momentous day. Well to use to use and obviously I know he’s not your main guy. Your main guy is Momes but you know Nick likes to use the dating you know the the ra dating him and all that. This is what we just witnessed. This is the equivalent of I want to see other people. I mean, that’s really what this is, right? I I I want to see We could still hang out, have fun, but I I want to see We’re no longer exclusive. Yeah, that that’s what that was. So, I’m just letting you know. Thanks, bro. Um, but look, I’m with you to some degree in that I feel worse, too, about the Bears. I know it’s just one game. I don’t want to overreact. We obviously not changing our picks at this point. They look like the worst team in the division unless Detroit really has fallen off. I mean, obviously look great Minnesota beat him and then Detroit we assume will still be pretty a pretty good team. Um Minnesota’s defense was better. Minnesota’s quarterback was better yesterday at least. Their run game was better. Their coaching was better. I mean, the adjustments they made at halftime just seem to have Ben Johnson like he didn’t, you know, they didn’t react well to him. And a lot of this obviously how you feel about the Bears is a lot about Caleb. And look, he was he had his moments as he did ear his last year too, but he looked good at points. But Nick, and I think that quote from him supports what I’m about to say. He looks like a great athlete playing quarterback rather than a quarterback who happens to be a great athlete like Mahomes, like Lamar, like Josh. Like he looks like a great and the fact that you’re still your second season. Heck, first we we when do you I can’t really think off the top of my head. last quarterback that talked so much. We talked so much about and he’s talking in press conferences about we got out of the huddle fast or the plays came by the huddle fast. No, but but you know what I’m saying? Just just basic stuff that we take for granted. Like when you watch Caleb, you’re looking to see that stuff. You’re you’re not really looking for that with any other quarterback, even a lot of the rookies for the most part. And so to me that shows this dude is a phenomenal athlete. And he is like the runs he made, the speed he showed and the arm strength is the arm strength. And so even like early on when he was 10 for 10. Mhm. And Aman did a great job of talking about this. Yeah. He was 10 for 10. Obviously a lot of stuff underneath checkowns, but he was missing some stuff down the field. And to me that says that Caleb kind of he’s thinking too much like he in his mind and and Aman talked about it. Ben Johnson has just been like completions completions completions which has its value but he was checking down like it was like he almost made up in his mind this is where I’m going. This is where I’m going. I just want to make it easy. Which I get cuz that’s what’s being drilled into his head. But that shows he’s not playing instinctively. His instincts are more what we saw in the second half. I’m not even talking about the uh inaccuracy, but running. He wants to run. He and I actually think not. You should not treat him like Justin Fields. No. But I think they need to lean more into him running. Like he can be a dual threat quarterback. I’m not saying he’ll be this good, but like a Lamar, like a Josh is a dual threat Jayen. Justin I wouldn’t do but like early not Justin Lamar I think is interesting you know what I mean what like a Jaylen Her I mean he Jaylen Herz even like he has that ability to and he’s just running now when he’s scrambling and maybe they’re just like look we just want to get him playing on time we don’t want to get him thinking about running No he’s not Jaylen well I I think I would imagine he’s bigger than Lamar though he’s bigger than Lamar oh I don’t think so you don’t I think Caleb Williams is more like soccer than Lamar. I think Lamar is like shot. Have you seen Lamar’s neck? I talked about the neck. I I think but whatever the case, I I do think he should be able to run more. So, um look, he’s a work in progress. I do feel worse about them and him to a degree, but like Nick, I’m not giving up on him. No, but but it wasn’t a great look. Go KW. I’m just saying if Caleb is open to seeing other people. Oh, because No, you already you would have to officially throw in the towel on Drake. Copa coffee on Drake May. Copa coffee is going to hurt anything. You’re not allowed to have friends. Here’s what I like. This is this is why week one the big question for us on in sports television is hey was that week one performance just week one rusty new system or was it indicative of something either more problematic or we’re going to talk about JJ sign of things to come bro didn’t have a good game we’re not here talking about like what’s wrong with bro because of the track record golf didn’t have a good game not saying what’s wrong Tua didn’t have a good game we are saying that even though Tua has led the league with that offense, with those wide receivers. We’ve seen him do great things. I’m giving a little bit to watching a little bit of the Manning cast and having Payton Manning. He’s like, “Oo, Brian Flores confused me on that.” Yeah, that that with me. No, I would like to see him go I he’s got Detroit next and Aaron Glenn’s not there and Ben Johnson knows what they’re going to run. I’m just saying that’s Listen, the Can I say his best friend moving in? Oh, she can see other people now. But like, as I said 11 minutes ago, shoulder cry, he’s mad at me. And now I’m like mad at you before they’re even my ex. Can I say one thing again as I try to repair our relationship? Critical of We don’t have a bad relation. He’s very mad at me. Guys, um, critical of Ben Johnson because here’s the deal. Go ahead. I am used to and I expect the older coaches to not be as good at game management as I am. That’s fine. I do not accept it from a guy who’s supposed to be cutting edge and is my age. And at the end of the game, when there’s 202 left, you must must ensure you save the two-minute warning. Ben said his plan was kick it through the back of the end zone. Santos couldn’t execute. Here’s the problem, and this is maybe some people look at it as next level or whatever. If you’re a brand new head coach, supposed to be the smart guy, you have to get this the way I got it instantly. The touchback these days is the 35. Yeah. What is the penalty for kicking it out of bounds? Or more accurately with the new kickoff rule, just tapping the football. Oh, it didn’t land in the landing zone. The penalty is the 40. You could have guaranteed you get the two-minute warning by telling Santos, here’s your job. Walk up to the ball and tap it with your toe. It doesn’t land in the landing zone. The ball is dead. No time runs off the clock. It is M Minnesota ball at the 40. 202 left guaranteed. You cannot risk losing the two-minute warning on weak leg Kairo Santos being able to kick it out of the end zone when the maximum upside of that is five yards. You can guarantee you keep the two-minute warning, give them the ball at the 40 by just tapping the football. Now, people listening watching right now be like, “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.” It’s not your job. It is Ben Johnson’s. I thought of it and Pton Manning on the Manning cast thought of it evidently as well. I wasn’t watching that broadcast, but you can’t. That’s a huge error because they would have got the ball back with a minute left and then who knows that’s a huge error that Ben Johnson can’t make. Got to be better. Well, they may have gotten it back with a minute left. Well, they did get it back with 20 seconds. So, I’m saying that depending on what they had done, you know, just something in Detroit uh next week. Vibe check in Minnesota very high. JJ McCarthy threw for two, ran in a touchdown as the Vikings scored 21 in the fourth. Sam Darnold’s like, “That used to be me.” What do you make of JJ’s comeback win, Brew? Ah, I mean, obviously his numbers weren’t the greatest, but can you have a better debut than this? You know, I mean, he when you do something no one in the history of the league has done, which was the three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, you know, for the comeback. Like, it was great. He showed resilience. He showed toughness. Now, look, he did, in fairness, he got a big boost from his defense. M which was just great in the second half, only gave up the seven points late in the game. And then from his run game, which they ran for 85 yards in the second half from the officials. Well, what what those all that did is give him time to ease into the game. And look, he didn’t look rattled to me at the beginning. He wasn’t doing much, but his he was passing the ball fine when he threw it. He was under a little duress from the the pressure from the Bears, but for him to bounce back from that pick six in his home city on the road in a huge standalone game on a 14 a team that was 14-2 last year and just let this quarterback who was in the MVP discussion go because of you and you’re facing a bigname rookie, the number one pick opposite for him to do what he did was huge. And so you mentioned, Nick, when we talking about Caleb, the emotional roller coaster, his his demeanor, personality, whatever that is so big for NFL quarterbacks. Like that’s one of the intangibles. Like, is this guy a leader of men? You know, do do guys respect him and all that? And he seems to have that. That’s certainly what he showed in this game. And I think his confidence and the team’s confidence in him is gonna take a huge jump because of this. Well, listen, we can show you his fourth quarter versus the first three. It’s stark because he was he was having an awful game. He looked totally out of sorts. The pick six it looked like ended the game. You know what I mean? And he was seemingly no threat whatsoever. To go from that to that is stark. It’s, you know, almost more impressive than if he was just mediocre the first three quarters and then, you know, turned it on. I also think the story within the story is this is why the Minnesota Vikings believed they could move off 14 wins because they believe that with that roster they currently have the coaching they currently have the situational sharpness the flip side of the Ben Johnson mistake is KOC had clearly told him no matter what take it out you know what I mean th those things sets a floor and so the floor the floor obviously is not 14 wins but the floor is higher than most and so we’ll roll the dice on upside and talent without you we don’t think that if we’re wrong about JJ McCarthy we’re about to be in a barren wasteland the way the Giants or the Jets have found themselves when they have missed on a quarterback because we like our roster we love our coaches we love our scheme all those And so they take a chance on a kid who it’s really interesting that game was a kind of what people said about him coming out of school, which was not that he would look bad and then look good, but like can’t explain it, but he never loses faith in the kid’s a winner. And I typically don’t like that type of analysis, but it it in college, he made the plays when they asked him to make the plays. In the pros, in his first game ever, he looks totally out of his depth until he has to be good and then was really good and tough and didn’t lose confidence, right? You know what I mean? And so I think I I think you got a glimpse of why people loved him. Some people loved him the way they did. You know, I joked about during the draft process that whenever people talked about JJ McCarthy, they talked about his handshake and what a good kid he was, not about like his throwing motion. But maybe for playing the quarterback position, some of those intangible things play a bigger factor than the numbers suggest, which probably supports that’s a cousin of supporting your guy Jaylen. Seriously, I know that. See, that’s another nice thing I’ve said about Kevin Wilds, guys. JJ versus Michael Penn on Sunday Night Football. Uh Jaylen Carter currently not suspended for spitting on Dak. He’s also not not suspended. We’re waiting for news from the league office. Uh might come down today. Brew, do you think Jaylen Carter should be suspended? I I’m going to be honest, some of this is probably just my personal fandom. No, I agree. I want to see him played in this game on Sunday uh against the Chiefs, but I feel like he didn’t play in this game last week, right? Like he he didn’t play one snap. So I that could be viewed as the suspension. Does it matter to you that the league like official policy is that’s not how it’s viewed? Yeah. You know what I mean? But I think mostly I agree. But I think mostly generally you’ve played some portion of the game when you’re suspended. He played none. Look, if the league comes down on him and suspends him for a game, I’m not going to raise my voice and protest because I get it. It’s a bad look. You got kids watching. You don’t want that. But I don’t think he has to be suspended. I think a hefty fine would suffice. Um, okay. So, just like we’re say, you were saying, and I agree, it shouldn’t play a role. It’s not fair that it would plays a role that this is a huge game in a Super Bowl rematch or whatever, but it does. Here’s another thing that’s not fair that it would play a role, but I wonder if it did. The college football player from Florida that spit on a kid this weekend. You know what? I I don’t know if there’s connected or not. So it’s not nothing but it’s not so from and he has since apologized and it was and and you know his spit seemed more egregious than Jaylen’s but he’s also younger and not a pro. Um I I saw that and I was like I feel like I don’t know how much of a percentage but his odds of being suspended went up like they’re like Lewis Suarez soccer player spit on a a security guy and just got three games but that was that just happened as well. Those to right but that guy’s got a little crazy. Um that’s that to me is coincidental. This might also be coincidental, but there’s an element of we went all since we’ve been in this studio. Let’s just go the last four years. We have not had a single college or pro football player of note in the discussion for spitting on a guy. And the fact that he does it Friday or I’m sorry, Thursday and then the Florida kid does it Saturday. I do wonder if the NFL almost feels a responsibility to make it clear this is this is not obviously it’s not acceptable but it is you are the penalty is harsh going and so I what I listen I think that it is outrageous if people get mad that he’s suspended you know what I mean I think that this is a suspension is warranted I also think that from a logical perspective, I agree with you. Even though the rules say that wasn’t a suspension, that was an ejection. That was a suspension, right? And you know what I mean? And so I I feel like he does. They don’t do this in the NFL. Like I feel like he if they said, “Hey, you have to miss the first quarter.” You know what I mean? like they’re at you have to miss you know truly a full complete game plus like they don’t I know that’s not even allowed but you know what like in college football you can suspend a guy for a half or something and so I don’t think I I also don’t think he will be but if he is I honestly believe the Florida kid spinning spitting was one of the reasons why brutal a lot of people didn’t spit so maybe he should be like well my counter like most people did not Yep. Thanks for watching.

Caleb Williams went 21-35 for 2 total TDs in the Chicago Bears’ 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes discuss the concerns for Caleb Williams following the loss, and what to make of J.J. McCarthy’s comeback victory. Plus, they ask whether or not Jalen Carter should be suspended.

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Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

‘Much worse’ feeling about Caleb Williams following Bears’ loss to Vikings | FIRST THINGS FIRST
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