While the Chicago Bears’ 2024 season continues to dash hopes, the Week 12 success of the DJ Moore/Caleb Williams connection raises hopes for the future.
The Chicago Bears‘ 2024 season continues to go down the toilet. All the hopes fans had before the season have been dashed. Now they just hope they can celebrate at least one win before the end of the season. Going up against the Detroit Lions, who own the NFL’s best record at 9-1, does not raise much hope in fining it this week.
The Chicago Bears have a rough schedule to the end of the season. At this point, wins and losses do not matter anymore. Seeing some improvement, any improvement, is important. One of the biggest areas of concern was the chemistry between quarterback Caleb Williams, who has all the hopes of fans on his shoulders, and the team’s best wide receiver, D.J. Moore.
Moore and Williams have struggled to connect this season. Except for the Week 5 game against his former team, the Carolina Panthers, Moore has not had consistently big games with Williams. In that game, he had 105 yards and 2 touchdowns. In the nine other games, though, he is averaging 39.4 yards per game and has just one touchdown.
There was a lot of concern by many because Moore signed a four-year, $110 million extension, the biggest contract in Chicago Bears history. With Williams in his rookie season, they will be together for a while. It is important for them to have chemistry and have success together.
© Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
In Week 12, we saw another glimpse of how good the Williams/Moore connection can become. Moore had seven catches for 106 yards and a touchdown. He was incredible in the fourth quarter and overtime, in which he had 3 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown.
It was targets to Moore that helped the Chicago Bears down the stretch to make a miraculous comeback. In addition to the touchdown, Moore had a catch that converted on a two-point conversion and he had a big catch that put the Bears in line for Cairo Santos‘ game-tying field goal.
This is what many expected to happen throughout the season but has been missing. In addition to the big plays he had late in the game, Moore has been locked in with Williams. He has now caught the last 14 targets Williams has sent his way. That is 14 catches for 168 yards and a touchdown.
© Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
While the season is beyond repair, we once again are left with some hope. If Williams and Moore can continue to improve, and having Rome Odunze grow as well, it puts the Chicago Bears in good shape. If the coaching situation can be resolved that makes it even better.
The 27-yard connection is what was most exciting. Moore had multiple defenders covering him and Williams had to throw it between them and high, as well as have trust in him to make the play. They both did their job — Williams threw it to where only Moore could catch it, and Moore had to make the big catch.
Don’t care about the loss.
The Chicago Bears finally have a real franchise QB.
pic.twitter.com/sa6fimS95d— Bearsszn (@bearssznn) November 24, 2024
Moore was excited about what he and Williams were able to do. He feels it could end up being a preview for the future.
Yeah, what we did in the second half, well mainly the fourth quarter, if we could do that the first three quarters it’s going to be amazing to see what we put up in points and how many games we win.
Of course, there needs to be more consistency before we could declare the future is here. In the four games combined following his 105-yard performance against the Panthers he had 104 yards. Consistency is the key before we can get overly excited.
© Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images
The difference between then and now is that the Chicago Bears have Thomas Brown as the offensive coordinator. After so many struggles the team fired Shane Waldron. The offense is flowing better and moving the ball now.
Williams has 571 yards passing in the two games under Brown. In the previous three losses during the five-game losing streak, he had 468 passing yards combined. As I mentioned earlier, wins and losses do not matter anymore this season (unless you just have to witness one more victory). Improvement is the priority.
Seeing how much better the Chicago Bears offense is with Moore and Williams on the same page is crucial if the team can turn things around in the future. Of course, having the right leaders as coaches is just as important. Let’s see what happens in the offseason.
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