How confident are you in the Bears and in Caleb Williams moving forward?
· Yahoo Sports
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The Chicago Bears have won three straight games in the most impressive fashion imaginable. Caleb Williams is the 1st quarterback in Bears history to lead his team to 30+ points in three consecutive games with no turnovers. The Bears also never trailed in any of these three games, and that 3-game streak of scoring 30 points while never trailing is tied for the second-longest streak in franchise history. They went four in a row three times, all in the 1940s (1941, 1942, and 1948). Those teams were led by Hall of Fame quarterback Sid Luckman, who is the only quarterback to win a league MVP for the Bears.
There was some buzz around Williams as an MVP candidate before the season, and that was amplified following the Bears’ 59-point explosion in Week 1, but the hamstring injury seemed to derail that because it kept him out of the next three games.
In his weekly NFL MVP Tracker at NFL.com, Kevin Patra wrote about the historical unlikelihood of Williams winning it.
In the post NFL-AFL merger era (since 1970) in non-strike-shortened seasons, only one player has missed three games and still won the NFL MVP award: Joe Montana in 1989. Cool Joe battled through various injuries that season, missing Weeks 6, 8, and 15, and portions of others.
While a long shot, the Bears did just beat last year’s Super Bowl participants in back-to-back weeks on primetime. They also have three more stand-alone games on the schedule, including a third straight primetime affair this Sunday.
Patra also explained why Montana’s performance in 1989 won it that year and how Caleb could have a similar path.
Despite missing three games, Montana was the best QB on the best team in the NFL, winning the MVP vote in a landslide (62 of 70 votes). The 49ers QB overcame the lack of counting stats by leading the NFL in all the efficiency categories: 70.2 percent completion rate, a 6.7 TD% rate, 53.7% success rate, 9.1 yards per attempt average, 270.8 yards per game, and set the then-record with a 112.4 passer rating — when 100 passer ratings were uncommon.
That’s Williams’ path to the MVP: Be the most efficient passer on the best team.
Caleb may not hit gaudy passing yard or touchdown numbers, but if all his other numbers are among the best in the NFL, while the Bears keep winning games, how could he not be a finalist?
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