Caleb Williams — Week 2: Fifteen of Twenty-Six, Then Hurt
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Williams completed 15 of 26 throws for 138 yards with no touchdown and one interception, took three sacks, and ran five times for 42 yards before he was injured on a sack at the Minnesota six with 7:42 left, down 6–3. Tyson Bagent finished the game. No Williams completion traveled more than 15 yards in the air, in a 9–3 loss to the Vikings.
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Six to three, Vikings, seven 42 left in the fourth quarter, first and goal at the Minnesota six. Blake Cashman sacked Caleb Williams for no gain, and the play-by-play notes that Williams was injured on the play. −0.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −2 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. He did not take another snap. Tyson Bagent played the rest of the game, and three snaps after the sack Isaiah Rodgers blocked a 23-yard field goal. A week after Chicago scored 59, it scored three.
The line: 15 completions on 26 throws, a hundred 38 yards, no touchdown, one interception, three sacks for 20 yards, an intentional grounding penalty, −1.0 expected points on 29 pass plays. Nine of 14 for 60 yards before halftime, six of 12 for 78 after. The interception was third and 12 at the Chicago 40 with a minute 47 left in the first quarter, tied at three, deep middle for Luther Burden, picked off by Byron Murphy at the Minnesota 36. He threw twice at 20 air yards or more, and both fell incomplete, the interception one of them. His longest completion, 32 yards to D'Andre Swift on third and seven, was caught five yards behind the line; no completion traveled more than 15 yards in the air. On third down he threw eight times, completed four and converted three. In Week 1 it was eight for eight.
The legs were the better half again: five runs for 42 yards, three first downs, +3.0 expected points. On second and three in the first quarter he fumbled the snap, recovered it at his own 36 and ran to the Minnesota 45, 17 yards in the book. The three scrambles went six, 11 10, the 10 on third and six from his own 17. The one designed keeper lost two at the Minnesota 11. His targets went five to Kalif Raymond, four to Swift, three each to Burden, Rome Odunze and Sam Roush, two each to Colston Loveland and Kyle Monangai, one to Cole Kmet, and three with no receiver listed.
The field position is the rest of the story. Chicago ran 15 pass and run plays inside the Minnesota 20 and scored on none of them; its three points were a 50-yard field goal. With Williams at quarterback the Bears reached the one, where Swift fumbled, and the six, where he was hurt.
Back in June the preview called Williams a top-five finish on bottom-tier accuracy, with his completion percentage over expected — how often he completes passes against how often an average passer would — as the whole question, and the rushing as the production that travels. Week 1 was 21 of 29 with four total touchdowns, and the episode called it the first afternoon in a long time that did not raise the accuracy question. This one raised it: 15 of 26, nothing completed past 15 yards in the air, a deep interception. One game each way. The rushing showed up both weeks, 65 yards and then 42. The play-by-play does not say what the injury is. Chicago is home to the Eagles on Monday the 20-eighth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Caleb Williams's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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