Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had the same reaction many fans experienced when he watched the film of his missed throws from Monday’s season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

He didn’t like what he saw.

“It’s frustrating because like I said after the game, you did everything up to that point right and then you miss a pass,” Williams told reporters at Halas Hall in Lake Forest on Wednesday. “And it’s frustrating. That’s something that we practice on, something that we get after and something that I’m going to keep getting after, keep correcting. Passes that I feel that I typically don’t miss in those moments and situations, especially with some of the passes being what they were and how wide open. You miss and you move on. You correct and you find ways to get better.”

The misses highlighted a mixed debut for Williams in head coach Ben Johnson’s offense. Williams made some impressive throws Monday that few quarterbacks can make. But he also reverted to some bad habits by not seeing open wide receivers or missing them with errant passes.

Some of those errant throws came in spurts. Williams opened the second half by throwing three straight incompletions with passes that weren’t close to their intended targets. He also failed to build momentum after completing his first 10 pass attempts, a franchise first since 1978.

Williams said some of those mistakes stemmed from simple things. One of them was simple footwork and making sure that he’s smooth with it.

The other is just knowing when to let it rip.

“I think that’s always something that quarterbacks need to have in their mind, and something I always try to have in my mind is be decisive,” Williams said. “The decisiveness always wins. When you start being hesitant and things like that, you start missing passes and easy passes that you feel that you don’t typically miss.”

Williams has shown an ability to be decisive even when he faces pressure. A perfect example of that came in the first quarter against the Vikings when pressure forced him to scramble to the sideline.

Before he went out of bounds, he darted a perfectly thrown ball to wide receiver Rome Odunze, who kept his feet in bounds to pick up a big first down.

“He’s just super talented with it,” Odunze said. “There’s not too many arm angles he can’t throw from, body positions. Whether he’s throwing left or right, whether he’s going backwards or forward, he always generates the power to be able to get the ball where it needs to be. So you always have to be ready in those scenarios. I don’t see anyone doing it like that.”

Johnson told reporters that there were a lot of good things in terms of Williams’ footwork and accuracy when he looked at the tape. When Williams did those things properly, he saw good passes like the ones he lofted to wide receiver DJ Moore a few times.

But Johnson wants to get closer to 100% for the frustrations to be lower. He was encouraged that Williams would learn from Monday’s mistakes.

“He’s very coachable,” Johnson said. “I think it’s been great. It’s been a really good process. I can’t stress enough how good the support system is around him between the coaches in that room, with [quarterback coach] JT Barrett and [offensive coordinator] Declan [Doyle] and [pass game coordinator] Press [Taylor] and then along with [quarterback] Case Keenum, someone else that has a lot of experience in this league playing this game. I think we’re really good in terms of cleaning up the mistakes and moving forward.”

Williams and the Bears will quickly get tested on how well they learn from the first game.

Chicago will travel to Detroit to play the Lions on Sunday in what should be a hostile Ford Field crowd. Detroit is coming off a disappointing loss to the Green Bay Packers to start the season, and Johnson will also make his first return since the Bears hired him.

“It’s frustrating because like I said after the game, you did everything up to that point right and then you miss a pass.”

—  Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears quarterback

Despite the mixed results Monday, Williams said he was confident that he could turn Monday’s mistakes into progress. He was disappointed in the way Monday night’s game unfolded, but he trusted that working with Johnson to fix the mistakes would help in his progress.

“There was a lot of positive that came out of that,” Williams said. “Obviously, we had negatives. Within that game, kind of how Coach Johnson said, we had more negative plays than they did, and we lost the game. It’s being able to find in those moments where maybe a drive goes bad and it’s being able to find those ways to come back together and go out the next drive and be efficient and do what we did in the first half.”