Ben Johnson Did NOT Say He's Losing Faith In Caleb Williams. In Fact, He Said The Opposite
After the Bears game on Sunday, myself and my affable compadre Eddie took in a Hawks game at the UC. We decided we wanted to go for two reasons:
A. We had suite tickets. Now I'm not sure if this is a known or not, but the suites at the UC have INSANELY GOOD all-you-can-eat smash burger sliders chilling in a chaffing dishes for the entire game.
That, and the desert cart is always on fucking POINT. The carrot cake? The paradise chocolate lava cake? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? Just absolutely outstanding.
I had 3 burgers and 1 slice of cake. I threw the last bite of cake away though, as I'm watching my caloric intake and figure.
2. We had to get that STINK of a Bears game off our minds. And when I say STINK, boy do I mean it.
Everyone was fucking bad. Caleb, Rome (don't argue with me on this one), the OL, the DL, the DBs, they were all BAD.
Oh yeah, and Todd Monken outcoached Ben Johnson. Monken's gameplan CLEARLY focused on avoiding giveaways, and there wasn't one single pass I can think of that Tyler Huntley threw that was dangerous, let alone almost picked off.
D. The Hawks are motherfucking BACK and I am back on the bandwagon:
Sure, the hatty was last night and not sunday, but point remains. B-A-C-K.
Anywho, sometime during the 2nd intermission as I was plucking a pickle off my left tit that fell off my 2nd burger, I came across this tweet and blog:
Wtf? I instantly furled my brow and clicked on the INSANELY clickbait-y link because at that juncture, I didn't know who wrote the blog or what Ben Johnson might have said that leads us to believe he now thinks Caleb is "truly awful"
Now, a few notes before I dissect the article:
- Yes, Caleb Johnson played like dog shit. In my opinion, it was one of his 2-3 worst games as a pro, maybe his worst. The groundings, the pick, the accuracy issues were all bad. Bad, bad, bad
But, again, context matters. We all saw this play on Sunday and thought to ourselves, "what the FUCK kinda pass was that? What the FUCK kinda dog shit mechanics are these??? What the FUCK is Caleb Williams doing here???"
Just click on the video. Don't listen to the commentary or read the Tweet. You'll see what we all saw in real time…a BAD throw:
In real time I, like almost every other armchair OC the USA, thought this lack of execution was on Caleb and nobody else. But when you look at the other angle, Williams was obviously avoiding Ro in the middle and if DJ kept running his route instead of settling directly behind the MLB, it would have been 6.
Here's the better angle:
I imagine that is an example of a play that can easily be cleaned up by CW, DJ and BJ. To my (limited) brain, it's as easy as "hey DJ, keep running your route and don't get walled off by the LB"
Someone can feel free to correct me though. That said, his footwork was still a mess even if the ball would have been on DJ's tits if he kept running. Clean that shit up, Caleb. Don't fly open. That's "throwing shit 101". Don't forget, I can throw 91MPH so I know ALL ABOUT throwing things.
MOVING ON… Yes, we're all guilty of composing clickbait blogs and trolling in our titles. Nobody is more guilty of it than me.
My issue with the article wasn't Stathole's obvious anger with the loss or his obvious hatred of Williams. That shit is completely fine to believe and write about. I wasn't mad that the title was clickbait, either. Such is life on the entire internet, let alone Barstool Sports.
My issue was twofold:
- Stathole mentioned how bad the Ravens' defense has been this year. He isn't wrong, it's been statistically bad… But he also failed to mention that Caleb Williams wasn't facing the same Ravens' defense from the last 4-5 weeks, as the got back 2 or 3 of their best starters, all of whom had been out with injuries for multiple games prior to Sunday: Roquon Smith, Chidobie Owuzie, and Kyle Van Noy.
That's a big deal. Nowhere was that mentioned in the article. Those guys coming back doesn't mean they're the 2001 Ravens D again, but it's not the complete and total sieve it's been for the few prior weeks, either. Probably somewhere in the middle.
That doesn't mean Caleb wasn't bad, because he was, but context matters. He was facing an "okay" defense. Not the worst D in football. If you're gonna talk about how bad the Ravens D has been, then talk about how it's also healthier now, too.
- NOWHERE IN THE ENTIRE ARTICLE DOES IT MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT BEN JOHNSON LOSING FAITH IN CALEB WILLIAMS. In fact, Johnson said the complete opposite in his post game presser:
Ben Johnson on Caleb Williams: "I actually came away from watching the tape this morning encouraged that we took a step in the right direction… he played better this game than I think he had the previous two"
To me, that means the headline was, more or less, a blatant lie. And blatant lies should not be how we get clicks when rage-blogging about our teams. THAT is what pissed me personally off the mot about that blog and though I won't speak for Dan, Ed or Ryan, I assume what annoyed them about it as well.
Once again: there is NOTHING wrong with being hyper critical of the Bears or anything else you're passionate about. Being hyper critical of the Bears is click bait enough, though. You don't need to resort to bullshit headlines that kinda/sorta put words in the head coach's mouth. That's a bad look, IMO, especially when the blog was clearly heartfelt and not of the "trolling" variety, per se.
I don't know who stathole is, though it's been said he's a Bears fan. With that said, here's an invite to hop on The Stretch Monday morning after the Bengals game to engage in a healthy debate about Caleb Williams, his future, and the outlook for the Bears for the rest of the season and beyond. I think that'd be a lot of fun and drive good engagement and downloads.
