By Larry Mayer Chicago Bears Senior Write
LONDON – Caleb Williams threw a career-high four touchdown passes—two to Cole Kmet and two to Keenan Allen—to lead the Bears to an exciting 35-16 win over the Jaguars Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Williams completed 23 of 29 passes for 226 yards and a 124.4 passer rating and rushed for 56 yards on four carries as the Bears improved to 4-2 with their third straight win.
The rookie quarterback nearly had a fifth touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, a 9-yarder to DJ Moore, but after a replay review it was ruled that Moore was down inside the 1.The Bears defense delivered another strong performance, limited the Jaguars to 278 yards while generating two takeaways and four sacks.
D’Andre Swift had another stellar game, rushing for 91 yards and one TD on 17 carries and catching four passes for 28 yards. Kmet led the Bears in receiving with five catches for 70 yards, including TD receptions of 31 and 2 yards.
After the Jaguars (1-5) took a 3-0 lead on Cam Little’s 30-yard field goal on their first possession of the game, the Bears answered early in the second quarter.
Williams threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Kmet, giving the Bears a 7-3 lead with 11:07 left in the first half. After faking a screen pass to the left and then to the right, Williams threw over the middle to Kmet, who broke one tackle and then dragged another defender into the end zone while stretching the ball across the goal line.
On their next possession, the Bears advanced from their own 5 to the Jaguars’ 41, highlighted by Williams’ 28-yard pass to Rome Odunze. But on third-and-1, Williams’ deep pass to Moore was intercepted by safety Andre Cisco at the 7.
The Bears increased their lead to 14-3 on Williams’ 2-yard touchdown pass to Kmet with :13 left in the first half. Their second TD connection of the game capped an impressive 10-play, 85-yard drive that included Williams scrambles of 23 and 19 yards and Williams’ 10-yard pass to Allen on third-and-5.
After being held to seven yards in the first quarter, the Bears gained 216 yards in the second period. In the first half, Williams completed 12 of 15 passes for 128 yards with two TDs.
On the Jaguars’ first play of the second half, T.J. Edwards stripped the ball from tight end Evan Engram after a 24-yard reception and Elijah Hicks returned the fumble 19 yards to the Jacksonville 41.
The Bears converted the takeaway as Williams rifled a 9-yard touchdown pass to Allen on third-and-goal, widening the margin to 21-3 with 11:22 to play in the third quarter. The TD came after Allen’s 11-yard reception on third-and-8 sustained the drive and Swift gained 19 yards on a screen pass to the 9.
The Jaguars followed by cutting the deficit to 21-10 on Trevor Lawrence’s 21-yard touchdown pass to receiver Gabe Davis midway through the third quarter.
The Bears answered as Williams threw his fourth TD pass of the game and second to Allen, a 3-yarder on a perfect fade pattern to make it 28-10 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The defense then generated its second takeaway as Josh Blackwell, who was in the game at nickel after Kyler Gordon exited with a hamstring injury, made a sliding interception of Lawrence over the middle, returning it 10 yards to the Jaguars’ 36.
The Bears capitalized on the turnover, extending their lead to 35-10 on Swift’s 1-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter.
Lawrence followed with a 5-yard TD pass to Davis to make it 35-16 with 6:58 remaining to complete the scoring.
