Can Caleb Williams fix his inaccuracy issues? Can Chicago Bears get DJ Moore involved?

LAKE FOREST – NFL quarterbacks throw hundreds of passes each week in practice. They practice and they rep every play in the weekly game plan.

So when Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams turns on the film and sees himself missing some quick, easy throws, there’s only one thing he feels.

“It’s frustrating because I’ve worked over the years of when I wanted to become a quarterback [on] accuracy being the most important thing,” Williams said. “And I still pride myself on that. So not being accurate, not being on time with things is frustrating because it’s kind of been my thing.”

Per NFL Next Gen Stats, the past two games were two of Williams’ most inaccurate games. His completion percentage over expected was negative against Washington in Week 8 (minus 8.8%) and against Arizona in Week 9 (minus 5%).

They were his two most inaccurate games other than his NFL debut in Week 1 against Tennessee.

“I think partly [it] is being on the same page and being able to find ways before or after practice, during practice, to be able to talk over a little bit more, to be able to get those routes ran in practice,” Williams said when asked about his inaccuracy.

Williams has not thrown a touchdown pass in either of the previous two games (he hasn’t thrown an interception either). The passing attack struggled against Washington and against Arizona. The offense didn’t score until the second half in Washington and never found the end zone against in Arizona.

That has led to frustration all across the offense.

“I don’t know,” receiver DJ Moore said when asked about the struggles. “We’ve just got to get back to scoring. We just had a game where [kicker] Cairo [Santos] had all the points, and that leaves us all with a sour taste in our mouth. We want to go out there and score touchdowns for the team, the fans, the organization, which we need to do at any cost.”

Over the past two seasons, when the offense plays well, it’s usually because Moore is involved. Moore has only six catches for 60 yards over this two-game losing streak.

Moore should be Williams’ best friend in the offense. He racked up more than 1,300 receiving yards last year on an offense that averaged 182.1 passing yards per game (ranked 27th). Through eight games, the Bears are averaging – eerily – exactly 182.1 passing yards per game (ranked 29th). Moore is on pace for about 700 or 800 receiving yards (he has 374 through eight games).

Asked about how he connected so quickly with former quarterback Justin Fields last season, but hasn’t so far with Williams, Moore couldn’t pinpoint a definitive answer.

“I couldn’t tell you. I mean, just reps? You can say Justin had more reps when I got here than me and Caleb have, just him being a rookie quarterback and Justin wasn’t a rookie quarterback last year.”

—  DJ Moore, Bears receiver

“I couldn’t tell you,” Moore said. “I mean, just reps? You can say Justin had more reps when I got here than me and Caleb have, just him being a rookie quarterback and Justin wasn’t a rookie quarterback last year.”

Williams said the offense’s issues are not so much about what the defense is doing against them. It’s more about finding the answers from within and executing properly.

“I’d say most of the things have been self-inflicted,” Williams said. “Penalties, inaccurate passes, us being not efficient in the run game contributes to that, because then you get to longer downs. I think going back to the pass game, just being more detailed with myself and the guys and executing. It comes down to that.”

The Bears will try to get back on track Sunday at Soldier Field in a matchup with a New England Patriots team that hasn’t shown much on the defensive side of the football this season.