Caleb Williams took advantage of his first preseason playing time, connecting with Olamide Zaccheaus for a 36-yard touchdown on the opening drive as the Chicago Bears cruised to 38-0 preseason victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night.
After sitting out a 24-24 tie with Miami last week, Williams came out firing against Buffalo (0-2) in his first chance to operate coach Ben Johnson's offense during a game.
The first pick in the 2024 draft completed throws of 18 yards to rookie first-round pick Colston Loveland and 29 yards to tight end Cole Kmet on a game-opening 92-yard march that concluded when Zaccheaus snagged a throw in the middle of the field on third-and-6, hurdled a tackler and went the distance.
Zacchaeus characterized the performance of the offense as "very calm, like composed and just in the moment."
"It's always good to go out there and kind of see work coming to fruition, but I'm just going to keep saying, you've just got to keep building upon that," Zacchaeus said.
Williams' play throughout training camp has been spotty, but he was sharp from the start. He hit on six of his first seven throws, then left after the second possession. He finished 6 of 10 for 102 yards.
Tyson Bagent came on to lead three second-quarter touchdown drives as the Bears (1-0-1) took a 28-0 halftime lead.
The Bears play the Kansas City Chiefs in their last preseason game on Friday. They open the regular season against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field on Sept 8.
Tight end Cole Kmet said there is still a lot of work to be done.
"I think we did what we should have done today, and we've still a couple of weeks or so, a week and a half left in camp, and some time still here to prep for Minnesota," Kmet said. "So I think it's a good thing what we did today, but we've still got a long ways to go."
The injuries did pile up for the Bears Sunday night — especially on the defensive side, with Dominique Robinson, Austin Booker, and Terell Smith all exiting the game early.
Matt Zahn
Matt Zahn joined CBS2 Chicago in October 2016 as a sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor, and what a time to come to Chicago. Matt arrived just as the Cubs won the World Series.