The Chicago Bears couldn’t have found a more fitting way to honor the late head coach Mike Ditka on Thursday in the team’s first home game since the coach’s passing.
Chicago beat the New England Patriots 30–24 at Soldier Field in a matchup between the two franchises that met in the 1985 Super Bowl, when Ditka led the Bears to a 46–10 victory. Ditka played tight end in the NFL from 1961 to 1972, including a five-year stint with the Bears.
He coached the Bears from 1982 to 1992 and led the franchise to its only Super Bowl win. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams looks to change that this season, and he took a step toward it, throwing 22-33 for 308 yards and two touchdown passes against the Patriots.
“It felt great being able to be back with the guys, being able to be back out here in front of our fans,” Williams told the Thursday Night Football crew afterward amid chants of MVP. “We travel well. They show up at home games. They’ve been supportive, and we want to keep making them proud ... so appreciate them and appreciate my teammates and everybody else.”
Williams has looked like an MVP early in the season, with a 71 percent completion rate, 1,020 yards, and five touchdowns against one interception. He also has 128 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, and the Bears are 3–1 when he is on the field.
The former No. 1 pick from USC is living up to lofty expectations for a team that has been starved for a true franchise quarterback for years. He could easily become one of the Bears’ all-time greats at the position, especially if he delivers a Super Bowl win one day.
“He has great intangibles … he’s a competitor. He wants to win. He wants to be one of the greatest quarterbacks to play this game,” Patriots safety Kevin Byard told reporters before Thursday’s game. “I love his mentality. I’m a huge fan of him, honestly. You talk about all the physical tools, it’s all there. But I just think the care, his willingness to go out there and fight every day for his teammates [stands out].”
Byard called the matchup between Williams and Patriots quarterback Drake Maye a “marquee” one, and Thursday night lived up to that billing. Maye went 24-31 for 321 yards and two touchdowns versus an interception, and he rushed for 26 yards and a touchdown on four carries.
After Chicago grabbed a 10–0 lead in the first quarter, Maye led a second-quarter scoring drive to cut the lead to 10–7. Williams then led the Bears to a pair of scores, 20–7, before Maye delivered a 48-yard touchdown pass play with running back Rhamondre Stevenson in a wild second quarter, 20–14.
Williams put the Bears back up by two scores in the third quarter, 27–14, but Maye answered again with a 30-yard touchdown pass to tight end Eli Raridon, 27–21. The Bears and Patriots traded field goals in the fourth quarter, and New England couldn’t recover the onside kick.
“Drake Maye is an outstanding player. It’s very hard to bottle him up,” Bears head coach Ben Johnson told reporters afterward. “You only rush four, and he finds a way if he doesn’t see anything down the field to find an open gap. And Caleb, it was good to get him now two weeks in a row finding some open receivers. For a short week, I thought he did a great job.”
For Williams, it was his second game back after a hamstring injury in Week 2. Williams had lots of praise for his wide receivers, especially Rome Odunze, who made a clutch catch to set up the game-sealing field goal.
“Decisiveness wins, and so I was decisive about the throw, decisive about throwing it to Rome, believing in him, trusting in him,” Williams said. “I told Rome after we had that pass interference down there in the red zone that I'll come back to you. We didn’t know when, and it ended up being a big part of the game.”
