O’Donnell: Why Williams and the Bears can win at Philadelphia
WITH ALL OF THE DEBATE AND DISSECTION twirling around the Bears’ second-year QB, here's a surefire dollop of wavy gravy to drop on any Thanksgiving dinner table:
“Caleb Williams is winning the money moments and in the end, that's the most important thing for a quarterback in the NFL.”
Consistent winners master how to crescendo successful endgame tactics.
That's a battle cry as old as Alexander the Great.
IN YEAR TWO OF HIS NUCLEAR FISHBOWL in Chicago, that's also the second-half jet stream Williams is playing into.
As George and Ira Gershwin wrote in “I Got Rhythm,” who can ask for anything more?
Bears fanatics can ask for more, less than 24 hours after birds become leftovers when their streaking heroes (+7) kick off in Philadelphia against the baffling Eagles (2 p.m., Fox-32 in Chicago; Amazon Prime nationally and AM-1000).
The game will be the third time out for the NFL's darkly named “Black Friday Game.”
GETTING AWAY FROM the sports theatrics on center stage, the marriage between the most intense shopping day on the American calendar and the revolutionary provider of rapid-fullfilment front-door deliveries is business genius that would have made Sears Roebuck & Halas take note.
Every shop-from-couch slouch in the nation now has further reason to duck the teeming bricks and mortars that were once considered cinnamon social moments.
NICK SIRIANNI AND HIS WINGED WARRIORS should be ornery and mean after blowing a 21-0 lead at Dallas Sunday and losing to the struggling Cowboys 24-21.
The Eagles — like the Bears and Seahawks — are 8-3, behind only the Rams (9-2) for the coveted first-round NFC bye come January.
But they have been running against the wind offensively. That despite Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts and such star adjuncts as wide receiver A.J. Brown, who may or may not be reading a copy of Jim Murphy's “Inner Excellence” during quiet moments on the sideline. (He quite publicly did that last January during a wild-card win over the Packers.)
WHAT'S THE FULL PHILADELPHIA STORY right here, right now?
The Eagles offense has been going through a spotty adjustment to first-time coordinator Kevin Patullo. A banged-up O-line hasn't been star-blazing for Barkley. Hurts shows a new timidity about throwing passes into areas where there are defenders within Uber distance, frustrating frequent flyers like Brown.
Holding it all together has been the defense of Vic Fangio. He's the master whose fourth and final year with the Bears was Matt Nagy's stunning 12-4 debut in 2018.
THAT TEASING CAMPAIGN, of course, was ended by Cody Parkey's double-doink in the playoffs vs. the visiting Eagles.
Dark thoughts of doink will not be in the Amazon Prime air at Lincoln Financial Field Friday afternoon.
For Bears faithful, visions of more assertive, cashable money moments by Caleb Williams will.
STREET-BEATIN':
For Bulls classicists, the Ring of Honor nights have already devolved into mock-worthy reminders of all the diminishment brought about by Jerry Reinsdorf and his patronization of Jerry Krause. From last weekend's additions, Johnny Bach was fired after the third championship by Krause, announcer Neil Funk was a constant reminder that he wasn't Jim Durham and Horace Grant told Reinsdorf in 1994 to take his organization and shove it. Warm and cozy stuff worthy of an IRS holiday potluck. …
One Saturday college football game worth DVRing: No. 14 Vanderbilt at No. 20 Tennessee (2:30 p.m., ESPN). Undersized Vandy QB Diego Pavia is drawing favorable comparisons to a young Jim McMahon. In these parts there are few more impressive scouting projections — inevitable injury risk and all. …
“The U” will present all eight IHSA football championship games this weekend. What should be a celebratory festival instead once again underscores the unfairness of lumping private schools against public schools. In the top four classes — 8A through 5A — six of eight finalists are recruit-favoring Catholic schools. It's grossly unfair at point of entry and even Pope Leo XIV would likely agree. …
Ian Eagle's work on Bears-Steelers Sunday once again showed that he is the most entertaining play-by-play man in America's top tier. He produces laugh-out-loud moments and consistently elevates booth mates such as JJ Watt. (Having a father who was a real-life Catskills comic doesn't hurt.) …
Is any power team in the nation more ripe for an upset than Ryan Day and Ohio State (-10) at Michigan Saturday (11 a.m., Fox)? Even former Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel — now the lieutenant governor of Ohio — is warning that frosty Ann Arbor weather could be “the great equalizer.” …
From the thrill-is-gone department: Northwestern's dramatic 38-35 win over Minnesota at Wrigley Field — making David Braun's Wildcats bowl-eligible — drew all of 15,323 fans. A Cubs' tribute to Tyler Chatwood might have lured as many …
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.