Lake Forest, Illinois. Bears defender Caleb Williams on Wednesday said he “couldn't care less” about comments about his game following Chicago's win on “Monday Night Football.”
“People are going to say what they say,” Williams said after the Bears extended their winning streak to three games for the second straight game. victory came from behind against Washington commanders. “We win, we lose; people have something to say. It's luck or bad luck; people have something to say. Bad game, good game; people have something to say.”
“It doesn't matter. Our only concern is what's happening here in this building and with these guys. That's all I can say about it.”
Williams was asked Wednesday about his performance during ESPN's “Monday Night Football” broadcast being described as “unfortunate.” Analyst Troy Aikman said Williams needed to do a better job of identifying where he throws the ball to his receivers so they could gain more yards after the catch.
As the Bears rallied from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter, Williams threw a short pass D'Andre Swiftwho ran 55 yards for a touchdown to cut Washington's lead to two. Regarding the play, Aikman said the safety of commanders Quan Martin missed a tackle, leaving Swift as open as he was, and that receiver DJome Moeure is pushed the defender Marshon Lattimore on Martin, who was supposed to cover Swift.
“Just a little luck on Chicago’s part,” Aikman said on air. “It wasn't really meant to be chosen [play]but it turned into this depending on how it was protected.”
Williams, saying he was “messing around,” mocked Aikman's characterization of the touchdown in an Instagram post Tuesday.
“Nations Cap, good to be back!” Williams' signature said. “Lucky” -TA. Vuopti Du [laughing emojis]”
“D'Andre played great and obviously [Aikman] there was something to be said about us or me and, I mean, in the end we came out on top,” Williams said Wednesday. “Made it into a little funny moment. That's it.
Bears coach Ben Johnson told the team's broadcaster Jeff Joniak that he caught part of the broadcast Tuesday morning while his kids watched the second half of the game in preparation for school.
“From that game last night, it seemed like some people weren't particularly happy with the way we were winning right now,” Johnson said. “But listen, in this league, any way you can find a way to win goes a long way.”
When asked later if he was surprised by Aikman's tone, Johnson responded, “Maybe I just muted it.”
“We need to earn that respect, not just from the rest of the NFL teams, but from everyone,” Johnson said. “Everyone will have their own opinion about us as a team and about each player, each coach individually. You try your best to block out outside noise. We know what we are building here. We begin to believe in each other. The more time we spend together, I feel it. “I feel like it’s growing and I think that’s the most important thing.”
“Ultimately, you really want the respect of your peers – particularly the people you work with – and I think that comes through outside the building as well, as well as in how you compete and what you put on tape. So yes, that's good. But at the same time, we are more concerned about what we do every day and what we do for each other.”
Williams expected that criticism of his performance would be used as motivation going forward.
“When you're in a competitive situation, like a coach or myself or other teammates, when people have something to say about you, whether it's this week or the whole year or whatever it is, I think you use that as a little bit of fuel, a little bit of motivation,” Williams said. “I think it's always part of your competition. It passes. But you don’t put too much into it so that it affects you negatively.”
