Courtney CroninOct 18, 2026, 07:45 PM ETCloseCourtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever and GameNight on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsATLANTA — Caleb Williams put his right hand underneath his ear as he skipped off the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a motion to encourage the raucous crowd of Chicago Bears fans here to get even louder.Williams let out a guttural “Let’s go!” and threw his right fist in the air following the Bears’ 31-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
He then made his way through the tunnel toward the visitors locker room where he posed a question to a handful of media members waiting to speak with him after he received one of two game balls in his return from a hamstring injury that had sidelined him the past three weeks.”Y’all like that?” Williams said, smiling.Williams didn’t miss a beat in his return for the Bears (4-2), completing 30 of 36 passes for 305 yards and a touchdown and showing no physical limitations from the injury he suffered Sept. 20.”I felt confident from the jump,” Williams said of his return. “When I get out there, I’m going to feel confident in my leg, in myself, and in my guys and the O-line. So I just let it rip, let these guys go make plays for us, get first downs, and score touchdowns.”Williams said his body felt “great” postgame despite getting sacked four times. With the Bears playing the New England Patriots on Thursday, Williams will prioritize treatment amid a quick turnaround.”Felt great to get hit after three weeks of just rehabbing,” he said.
“So (I) feel strong, feel good. Obviously got to go and take care of it this week. It’s going to be a weekly thing, just taking care of it, staying up to date on it and taking care of my body.”Chicago jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter after Williams led the offense on back-to-back touchdown drives. He completed his first 12 passes, the most at any point in a game in his career.”Honestly, I didn’t even know that he hadn’t missed yet,” coach Ben Johnson said.
“That’s not even something — it’s more you just kind of calling it. You’re doing what you feel like is going to help your guys out. But when I reflect back, it’s not a surprise. I know we had a couple big plays there on third-and-long that were really the key part of keeping those drives going there early in the game.”The fact that we started fast, really in all three phases, was huge for us, as well as something that we had also talked about the night before.
Just if you could write a script, that’s what we would want to do against a team like this. We’ve got to come out of the gate hot, and it’s a dangerous team. Their defense is darn good. Their offense can put up points in a hurry, as we saw at the end of the game.
And I thought the way that our guys came out and responded was huge. Having Caleb back was a huge part of it.”The Bears went 9 of 17 on third down, which allowed the offense to extend drives and stay on the field for 40 minutes, 8 seconds total. After entering Week 6 with the league’s worst red zone scoring efficiency (42.86%), the Bears were 4 for 4 on Sunday, excluding Williams’ kneel down at the end of the game.Ahead of the Bears’ trip here, Williams completed his first week of practice with full participation since suffering what he classified as a “pretty serious” hamstring tear late in a Week 2 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.Midway through the week, the quarterback had a one-on-one meeting with Johnson where he voiced a desire to open up the passing attack upon his return.”I walked in his office, dapped him up and said, ‘Let’s get this thing going this week,'” Williams said. “I walked out after that.”That approach paid off quickly Sunday.”He was connecting everywhere,” wide receiver Rome Odunze said.
“People were making plays all over the field. So our offense was really clicking. That’s why we want to be in that flow state mode, and we were in there today.”In the process of recording his sixth career 300-yard passing game, which broke a tie with Mitchell Trubisky for the most such games by a Bears player before turning 25 years old, Williams set a career high in completion percentage (83%). He also completed all 26 of his attempts when Atlanta failed to generate a pressure, which marked the most attempts without an incompletion since ESPN began tracking pressures in 2009.Days after Williams expressed frustration over how his hamstring injury was reported and the negative reaction he received on social media for his emotions after getting injured, his teammates rallied in support of the quarterback and the energy his return provided the entire team.”He’s a very, very important piece of this team,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said.
“Mentally, physically, it’s different when he’s out there. So he’s just being who he is, being an alpha and just playing ball.”
