Rich Weighs In on the Bears Surviving Caleb Williams’ 4 INTs in Their Week 9 Win vs the Bucs

The Chicago Bears are 7-2 heading into their bye. That is the headline. The fine print is four Caleb Williams interceptions, five total turnovers and a new nickname.

Rich called this Bears team "what overreaction's all about. Or not." The case for the Bears is strong. They came into Sunday night off a Week 8 Monday night win in Seattle, where they took the defending Super Bowl champs in front of the 12s "and treated them badly." The week before that, they beat the Patriots, the team Seattle beat in Super Bowl 60. They have won four in a row without trailing at any point, the third time in franchise history they've done that. They are 7-0 against non-division opponents this year and 16-2 against teams outside their division under Ben Johnson, the best in the league since he took the job.

And Sunday started like a coronation. The Bears' first 15 scripted plays "diced up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers," Rich said. Williams threw two touchdown passes to Rome Odunze on the same drive, the first one wiped out, the second one counting. On the next drive, Luther Burden took a ball around midfield the rest of the way.

It got so lopsided that Todd Bowles started making decisions outside his usual lane, Rich said, sensing that field goals weren't going to cut it. Then Williams started "heat checking himself," and the Buccaneers' defense started heat checking too. "They turned Caleb Williams into Michael Penix," Rich said, noting Penix threw four interceptions the week before. Williams did the same. One was a tipped ball, but others left Rich wondering, "What are you doing?"

"As long as the what are you doing factor is still there within Caleb Williams, you got to wonder is this team going to go where it needs to go?" Rich asked. Or maybe you tip your cap to Tampa Bay, or simply allow that Williams had an off night. If the off night ends up in the win column, "a win is a win."

A big reason it did is the defense. "This Bears defense is everywhere," Rich said. Chris Collinsworth illustrated on the broadcast how Jeffery Simmons affects plays even when he is double-teamed, freeing Devin Bush, Rich's "guy from Michigan," to run free and giving Booker some one-on-ones. Then Jaylon Johnson, "the much maligned Jaylon Johnson," came up with a pick-six that seemed to put it away.

It didn't. Burden fumbled after getting lit up by Reuben Bain on a helmet-to-helmet hit that drew no flag, though the expectation on set was that a fine letter is coming. Tampa scored, and Baker ran in a two-point conversion. But Williams hung in. A blown coverage by the Tampa defense left Colston Loveland wide open late to set up Cairo Santos for the game-winner.

That made it Chicago's first win while committing five turnovers since 2006, which, Rich noted, turned out to be a good year for the Bears. They made the Super Bowl.

Johnson saw a silver lining. "We really haven't been in that situation where in the fourth quarter with little time left, needing to go and field goal, touchdown, whatever that is," he said. "I feel like our guys, we are prepped for that and we're ready for it. That's what I know now after going through that."

"You are what your record says you are," Rich said. Seven wins, four straight since Williams came back, without trailing in any of them. But there is history attached to the four picks. Williams became the first quarterback to throw four interceptions in a win since Todd Collins in 2010, and before that it was "Sexy Rexy" in 2006, a name Bears fans would rather not hear next to Williams'.

At the podium, Williams owned every mistake, going interception by interception. Then he ended with a new label. "Just tried to get the ball out and tried to be the big eraser. That's what I've been. That's what I will be," he said. "Keep being the big eraser. And today I wasn't."

What exactly is the big eraser erasing? The interceptions, the opposing defense, the memory of the mistakes? The crew debated it, comparing it to Shaq endlessly giving himself nicknames and recalling the old Knicks big man Marvin Webster, "the human eraser," a 7-foot-1 center one member of the show once ran into at a diner in Westchester County.

Williams also made clear four picks won't change his approach. "I'm a throw until I can't throw anymore," he said. "I could throw 100 picks in one game. If it comes down to it, I'm gonna throw that pass that I threw to Colston, or if it's a tighter window, I'mma rip it in there." He added, "I don't get gun-shy. That's not me."

What do you want him to say? Throwers throw, the room agreed, and most teams would love to have that thrower. But Sunday, as one voice put it, he was throwing to the other team "in a way that was alarming." The defense was the real big eraser, highlighted by Simmons running down Emeka Egbuka from 15 yards behind on what might have been a receiver screen touchdown.

"So the Bears are seven and two is the headline," Rich said. "And then if you want to read the fine print, go for it. Because that fine print might get erased by the big eraser."