Caleb Williams jogged toward the northwest tunnel at Soldier Field late Sunday afternoon. The noise from the remaining fans in the stands from the Chicago Bears’ 31-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys grew louder as he approached them.

Once Williams ran into the end zone, he looked up, pumped his arm back and forth in a cheering motion and let go two weeks’ worth of frustrations into the stands.

“Let’s go,” Williams screamed as he continued running toward the tunnel, tossing a wristband to a fan.

It was a moment Bears fans had waited for since the team hired head coach Ben Johnson over the offseason. It was a moment Williams had dreamed of when he heard the news of Johnson’s hiring in January.

The Bears looked like an efficient offense that spread the ball amongst its playmakers, took advantage of the opposing defense’s deficiencies and even capitalized on a trick play. And Williams was at the center of it all, leading the way.

“I think it builds confidence for us,” Williams said after the game. “It builds confidence for us as a team and as an organization to be able to go out here, win these games. I feel confident about who we’ve got on this field.”

Sunday didn’t seem like it would be a confidence-builder at the start. After scoring on its opening possession during the first two games of the season, the Bears offense went three-and-out after an overthrown ball and a negative run.

But Williams and the offense built momentum after cornerback Tyrique Stevenson gave it the ball back after he forced and recovered a fumble on Dallas’ opening drive. Williams found tight end Colston Loveland for a 31-yard pass to move the ball down the field before he hit a wide open Rome Odunze down the sideline for a 35-yard touchdown.

Then the trickery came.

Johnson called for a flea flicker on the Bears’ first play of their third drive. Running back D’Andre Swift ran the ball before he lofted the ball back to Williams after he was bumped near the line of scrimmage. Williams corralled the ball in before he aired the ball out 65 yards to a waiting Luther Burden III, who made a move at the end to score the touchdown and give the Bears a 14-3 lead late in the first quarter.

“Those guys handled it well,” Johnson said. “[Williams] handled it well, really nice pass there to Luther, turned the corner and scored.”

Williams handled the rest of the game well as he became more comfortable in the pocket, with his footwork and his progressions.

He ran a two-minute drill efficiently toward the end of the first half. Williams picked up a couple first downs on completions to Odunze and Burden before hitting tight end Cole Kmet for a 10-yard touchdown with 25 seconds left to make it a 24-14 Bears lead.

Then the Bears went on a back-breaking drive in the third quarter that seemed to put the game away for good. Williams led a 19-play drive that took 9 minutes, 54 seconds off the clock. He completed a couple passes to rookie running back Kyle Monangai and Burden before he scrambled on fourth-and-4 and found DJ Moore in the back of the end zone to make it 31-14.

“It was just really well-schemed up plays against that defense,” Kmet said. “Did a good job of that and Caleb did a good job of moving the ball over. So that was good to see.”

Williams didn’t break any of his career records Sunday despite the strong performance. He completed 19 of his 28 passes for 298 yards and completed four touchdowns, which matched his career high.

But Williams took a major step in his development. He looked more comfortable than he had in the previous two games. For Williams, the hard work he and his teammates had put in was starting to pay off.

“All the stuff that’s shown up with all the hard work that we’ve been able to put in as an offense, all the hard work that I’ve been putting in myself with the coaches after hours or whatever the case may be,” Williams said. “It’s nice to show up and I think the guys are believing more within the coaches, believing more within themselves and believing more within us, and I say that as the guys but also me included.”

There was a career first for Williams on Sunday, though. Sunday was the first time in his career where he wasn’t sacked. The offense was also not called for a pre-snap penalty, something that plagued it during its 0-2 start to the season.

“I think it builds confidence for us. It builds confidence for us as a team and as an organization to be able to go out here, win these games. I feel confident about who we’ve got on this field.”

—  Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears quarterback

Williams credited his offensive linemen for his success as well as the offense’s. He said the linemen had worked hard to fix up those issues and that allowed him to become more comfortable with his tempo.

“Being able to get the ball out fast, obviously, that plays a part for me, being able to get the ball out, tire the defense out and run the ball well and not be predictable in those situations,” Williams said. “And then from there it’s being able to just go out, execute the plays and deal.”

Once Williams got into the locker room after he ran into the tunnel, he had the honor of presenting Johnson with the game ball for his first career head coaching win. Williams announced it to the team before he tossed the ball over to Johnson and the team swarmed him to celebrate.

It was a special moment for the team to celebrate. Not only was it the team’s and Johnson’s first win together. It was a glimpse into what the Bears could become with Johnson and Williams together.

“It’s awesome,” Williams said. “The trust and belief and the hard work and just all of it together, I’ve been able to have that moment for him and his family, the organization, this historic organization. It’s just a constant growth mindset that we’re on, but to be able to have this moment for him and us is really important. It’s important for us as a team, organization, to be able to keep building this momentum and have this growth that we want to go on and this run that we want to go on.”