Hold On!!! Caleb Williams Is Only Week-to-Week the Chicago Bears?!?!

For a few hours, it looked like the Chicago Bears' season had ended in the Soldier Field rain. By Monday, it looked like Caleb Williams had dodged the worst of it.

Rich walked through how it unfolded. The Bears trailed 6-3, and Ben Johnson decided to go for it rather than kick a game-tying field goal, "cuz that's what Ben Johnson does." They picked up the first down. Then Williams, "running for his life or trying for a touchdown, who knows," went down when his hamstring gave way. The rest of the football world, Rich noted, thought it might be his Achilles, because of how badly he was hurting.

"He could not withstand the pain by standing on his own," Rich said. "He needed help off." Williams was carted off with a towel over his head, which Rich read as the universal sign for "I cannot believe this has happened to me."

Then the news started getting better. Johnson said the team knew it was not his knee. Photographs showed Williams leaving Soldier Field under his own power, with no crutches. Mike Florio said Sunday night it might just be a grade one strain, which sent Rich into a brief detour on injury grading. "I don't know the numerical system for strains," he admitted, reaching for a DEFCON comparison before conceding, "It's been a while since I've seen WarGames."

By Monday, the report the show cited was that tests confirmed no major injury, and the team was not even ruling Williams out for the next Monday night game against the Eagles. "There's cheers from Halas Hall all the way to Bristol, Connecticut," Rich said, since that game airs on Monday night. The relief reached the show's own staff. Screener Adam Chudwin, the desk reported, was so depressed after the game that he took a nap. "So, wake up Adam," Rich said. "It looks like Caleb has avoided serious injury."

Rich did not think Philadelphia would lose sleep over the uncertainty. Vic Fangio, he said, "has been through so many defensive coordinator wars" that preparing for either Williams or Tyson Bagent "is not something that's going to keep him up." Had the injury been worse, Rich said, Bagent for the rest of the year "would have been a heck of an arm wrestle."

The other side of that game deserves credit, too. The Minnesota Vikings took a division road game in the rain to go 2-0, following a big comeback win at home against the Packers. "They're not just two and 0," Rich said. "They're the best type of two and 0. In division on top of it." Minnesota held on in the fourth quarter in Chicago for a second straight year, this time with Carson Wentz, and Aaron Jones looked good. A 9-3 final "is not going to light up any fantasy scoreboards," Rich said, "but it doesn't matter."

It could matter a lot in the NFC North. The Lions "just got lit up on Thursday night" and are having trouble defensively. The Packers, who had lost six in a row, four of them after holding two-score leads, flipped the script by rallying from two scores down against the Jets at MetLife.

Then the desk brought up the internet's latest pastime: turning Williams into a meme for the way he reacted, comparing him to Paul Pierce. Rich had zero interest. "Who cares? Honestly," he said. One member of the desk pointed out that in the moment, Williams probably thought his season was over, whether the tears came from pain or mental anguish.

Rich's verdict was simple. Williams is "the Ice Man," he is "looking swoll," and he already survived people mocking him for crying on his mother's shoulder in college. "First overall pick, dynamite kid, dynamite setup, life is good for Caleb," Rich said. "Let's just hope let's get him back. Who cares if he's a meme?"

As for the people still making fun of him: "Those people should get lives."