‘No complaints’ after Bears’ Williams plays opening drive in preseason loss to Bengals

CINCINNATI — Caleb Williams “felt smooth” in a preseason tuneup Saturday night at Paycor Stadium.

Williams completed 2 of 5 passes for 28 yards against the Cincinnati Bengals backup defense. He had the Chicago Bears offense moving into the red zone before a penalty set the opening drive back. The Bears wound up settling for a 45-yard field goal from Cairo Santos to go up 3-0.

After one possession, Williams and the starters were done for the night. The Bears went on to lose 27-9.

Williams completed an 18-yard pass to wide receiver Rome Odunze and a 10-yard pass to tight end Colston Loveland. But on first-and-10 from the 17-yard line, a holding penalty against left tackle Braxton Jones sent the offense back 10 yards.

“No complaints,” Williams said of his day. “Other than we’ve got to, if we get a penalty — we try not to get penalties obviously, that’s not the goal — but if we get penalties, it’s my job and the other guys’ job to try and get us back in position to try and help (coach Ben Johnson) out in that situation. There’s not many calls that you can have for second-and-20 or third-and-20.”

After the penalty, Williams threw three consecutive incompletions before the Bears sent Santos out for the field goal. On one of those incompletions, it looked as if Williams had Loveland open up the seam, but his throw was high and they couldn’t connect.

He said afterward he noticed a broken coverage from the defense and went off script.

“That’s not typically our read on that play with that, when they get into that coverage,” Williams said. “They ended up messing up on defense. (I) tried to find the open guy and just missed.”

On third-and-20, Williams threw incomplete for Odunze. Williams saw a linebacker stepping in front of the throw at the last moment, so he said he missed his target purposely to avoid a worse outcome.

Williams played nine snaps, including two negated by penalties, and the offense totaled 33 yards on the possession.

“I have to go back and watch the tape,” Johnson said when asked to assess Williams’ play. “He gained nine more reps, I know that.”

Heading into the night there was uncertainty whether Williams would play at all in the preseason. Johnson didn’t announce his plan before Saturday’s game, and earlier in training camp he suggested Williams might not play in the preseason.

“Do I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I don’t,” Johnson said Aug. 13. “I see him every single day in practice and I know what we’re going to get come the season.”

The Bears participated in a joint practice with the Bengals on Thursday in Cincinnati, with many of the starters seeing significant reps.

Johnson said the offense “left a little bit out there” in practice but thought overall Thursday’s session was a good battle for his team.

“Our defense competed really hard throughout that one against a really good unit,” Johnson said. “(Joe Burrow) is a top-five quarterback in the NFL and of course those pass catchers are outstanding as well, so there’s a healthy amount of back and forth. I thought some periods they got us and other periods we really got them. That’s what you want to see in a setting like that.”

Still, Johnson wanted to see Williams and the starters get some action after they sat out the preseason opener against the Cleveland Browns last week.

Several projected offensive starters did not play: left guard Joe Thuney, wide receiver Luther Burden III (who has a groin injury) and running back D’Andre Swift. Jordan McFadden started in place of Thuney.

But Williams had most of the starting offense with him, including top pass catchers Odunze and Loveland.

After Johnson pulled Williams, the Bears turned to third-string quarterback Case Keenum and later to fourth-stringer Miller Moss. Backup Tyson Bagent is out with a hamstring injury and did not travel with the team.

Keenum led Bears quarterbacks with 119 yards on 9-of-17 passing. Moss finished 13-for-21 for 103 yards. Maurice Alexander led the Bears with five receptions for 60 yards, while third-string running back Roschon Johnson paced the rushing attack with 42 yards on 12 carries.

Bengals coach Zac Taylor rested Burrow and his starters. They started 40-year-old veteran Josh Johnson, who had 156 yards and two touchdowns on 15-of-23 passing.

The Bears played much of their starting defense, although tackle Grady Jarrett, linebacker T.J. Edwards and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson did not suit up. The Bengals picked up four first downs on the opening drive against the Bears starters before settling for a field goal.

“Not good enough,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “Even the first group, we didn’t get off on third down. But we did a job as far as the first team of not letting them get in (the end zone). Not to our standard. We’ve got to get off on third down and then overall take some of the big plays off. I know we had some blown coverages that we’ve got to clean up.”

Ben Johnson was frustrated with his team’s 11 penalties for 81 yards, which started on the opening drive. The Bears offense was 2-for-14 on third down.

“Overall it doesn’t matter if it’s preseason or not, it’s a bad feeling in that locker room when you lose,” Ben Johnson said. “Particularly when it’s like that and it’s by multiple scores and you don’t feel like you make it closer at the end.”

The Bears will finish their preseason slate Saturday against the Tennessee Titans in Nashville, Tenn. Their season opener is Sept. 13 against the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, N.C.