Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus drew a lot of criticism on Sunday for keeping rookie star quarterback Caleb Williams in the game despite the lopsided score, putting him at risk of injury. And it seems like those fears came true.
Caleb Williams remained in Sunday’s 29-9 loss to the Arizona Cardinals until the very end of the game when he took a hit that seemed to cause an injury.
Williams got up from the hit and was moving gingerly, appearing to have some sort of injury in his leg.
After the game, he confirmed that he did indeed suffer an injury during the final play of the game.
“I landed wrong and just kind of tweaked it and [on] the last play, the dude grabbed my ankle and gator rolled,” Williams said. “Tried to get off of it because when you stay on it, that’s when bad stuff starts to happen and [it] breaks and all of that. Tried to just let my body go so I could fall and roll with him.”
Williams was asked about why he felt he remained in the game even with the game out of hand and he replied bluntly that it was “not my decision” while explaining that when you’re in the game, you have to “fight to the end.”
“You fight to the end of the game, if you’re in the game,” Williams said. “If not, [the] coach makes a decision like that. You have to deal with it and figure out the next steps. But yeah, not my decision.”
It’s worth noting that both Williams and Eberflus indicated after the game that they felt Williams was going to be “OK” after his injury.
“He limped off there a little bit,” Eberflus said. “When he came in, [he] looked to be fine. We’ll check him in the morning.”
Still, the decision to leave him on the field in the first place will be heavily scrutinized.
[ESPN]
