Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle isn't going to discourage quarterback Caleb Williams from scrambling—not when the second-year pro is so proficient at it.
In Monday night's season opener against the Vikings, Williams rushed for a team-high 58 yards on six carries and also extended plays that resulted in completions downfield, including a 17-yard strike to receiver Rome Odunze.
"It's something that certainly can provide a lot of value for our offense," Doyle said. "It's something that you don't want to lean away from. You don't want to say, 'Hey, be a robot and sit in there.' We want to be playing within our scheme, the plays that are designed for certain coverages and then [the] quarterback, you're the eraser. You erase mistakes and you go make it happen.
"That's his superpower is when he's extending … We'll encourage him to do that, to extend plays and go make yards. When he takes off, he's pretty fast and he can roll. It's something that we're excited about in our offense."
While Williams is adept at scrambling, the Bears don't want him to take off too early.
"You want to be playing within the offensive system, and so you want to be playing through your reads," Doyle said. "And then at a certain point in time, sometimes it's coverage dictated. They might be playing a variation of two-man, and they don't have somebody for the quarterback, and we're going to tell him in those situations, sometimes your legs are better than whatever we have called and it's your responsibility to go hurt those guys."
On the mend
Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson was a full participant in Thursday's practice and expects to make his season debut Sunday when the Bears visit the Lions.
"That's my thoughts, my anticipation," Johnson told reporters.
The sixth-year pro missed all of training camp and the preseason with a groin injury. He was limited last week in practice and did not play in the season opener.
Johnson revealed that he feels "a lot better" than he did last week.
"I feel pretty good just getting that extra week of reps, extra week of conditioning, just getting up to speed in the playbook, being able to do walkthroughs," he said. "Things like that are really beneficial for me. All those reps are important."
Energy shift
The most success the Bears had running the ball Monday night against the Vikings came late in the third quarter when D'Andre Swift carried on five of seven plays and gained 32 yards, including runs of 13 and 9 yards.
"That's an energy shift," Doyle said. "Any time you start running the ball well, the sideline can feel it, the players can feel it. Swift is more than willing to drop his pads and go get the yardage necessary. It's something that can happen throughout the game, and we expect it to happen through the game.
"It just so happened that we were a little more effective in the second half as we started rolling there and you could feel it from 'Swifty.' I can't say enough about him as a person, just being around him every day. He's a guy you can count on in adverse scenarios when we need someone to step up and go do it."
Narrow focus
The Bears defense was dominant through three quarters Monday night, holding the Vikings to a pair of field goals, but Minnesota scored touchdowns on three consecutive drives in the fourth period to turn a 17-6 deficit into a 27-24 victory.
Asked how to prevent a repeat performance, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said: "When momentum starts to swing in the opposite direction, rather than trying to do more, narrow your focus and just focus on the basic fundamentals of playing football. Get your eyes in the right spot. Do your job and do the things that you're supposed to do, and don't try to do too much.
"That's really what the focus is: for four quarters, focusing on doing my job all right and trusting that the other [10] guys on the field are going to do their job. Every single play we all have a job to do, and if we trust our teammates are going to do their job and we do ours and we do it well, then we're going to have success."
