When Bears quarterback Caleb Williams was agitating to return from his hamstring injury, he talked up his pass-catching corps. He called them the best in the world — “BIW” for short — and said he planned on making them even better.
“I'm going to keep putting the ball up in the air, you keep making catches,” he told them. “Then from there, we'll keep growing.”
Receiver Luther Burden and tight end Colston Loveland took that to heart.
Loveland has 24 more receiving yards in the past two games than he did in the first five games of the season combined. Burden has 41 fewer receiving yards the past two games than he did the previous five. Both played their best game of the season in Thursday night’s 30-24 win against the Patriots, with Burden totaling a career-best 130 receiving yards and Loveland a career-high seven catches.
“When you throw for 300 yards, I think you end up having some guys stand out and feeling pretty good about their performances at the end,” coach Ben Johnson said.
This is what the offense was supposed to look like after Johnson talked up both Burden and Loveland all offseason long. Williams never doubted it, saying the Bears wanted to get Burden the ball “as much as possible” and that it was “It's just a matter of when” Loveland took off. The latter took on extra meaning late Thursday, when fellow tight end Cole Kmet was lost for the season with a right knee injury.
“Things are just clicking and happen to be there,” said Loveland, who has a touchdown reception in each of the past two games.
Johnson was bothered by two Loveland drops against the Patriots, which he called uncharacteristic, but said his second-year tight end is getting open with regularity.
“We know what we're getting there,” Johnson said. “We've just got to continue to find opportunities for him.”
Johnson was impressed with Loveland’s blocking on Burden’s touchdown, too. On third-and-17 with 21 seconds left in the first half, Williams threw a screen to Burden, who charged fron the right slot into the end zone behind Loveland and receiver Kalif Raymond.
“Then the whole cavalry came, the whole O-line showed up, and it was like a wave carrying him through there,” Johnson said. “He saw a little crease and hit the jets.”
Asked what he saw in front of him, Burden smiled.
“I saw a whole lot of money,” he said. “It was great blocks by my teammates. Shoot, we needed them.”
When he reached the end zone, Burden knew exactly what he was going to do. He told a cousin earlier in the day he’d mimic Johnson’s version of the “Stanky Leg,” the dance the head coach did in the locker room after beating the Falcons — and eventually after winning Thursday, too.
“He's elite with the ball in his hands,” Johnson said. “It's just a matter of how we can get it to him. Certainly not at a level where we're predictable either. We don't want it to just be screens or underneath routes. He's got more to his game than that. He's got more speed than that, too.”
As a kid, Burden was so dangerous with the football in his hands that his friends called him “Touchdown Luther.” His new nickname is far more sinister.
“Problem Child,” Williams said.
With the ball in his hand, he’s a problem for the opposition. Through seven games, Burden has 250 yards after catch. That ranks third among all NFL players, though with the caveat that he’s played at least one more game than everyone else entering Sunday’s slate. Only seven other players have more than 200 yards after catch.
“When I get the ball, I’m gonna be a problem,” Burden said. “Especially with too much space. I might go the distance.”
He caught a 26-yard pass on the Bears’ first offensive play Thursday. Later in the first quarter, he had a career-long 58-yard catch. Burden finished with four catches for a career-best 130 yards.
“The stuff you don’t think is gonna go to the crib, it just goes to the crib,” Burden said.
Bears coaches told Burden during the week that he had to be the engine of the offense, given how much his teammates feed off his energy.
“The passion I bring to the game,” he said. “The energy, the will, the want-to, the fire.”
Combine that with Loveland’s breakout, and the Bears have reason to be excited about their final 10 games of the regular season.
“I think we're kind of hitting our stride now, in terms of how we can game-plan this thing to where every guy is getting their fair share of touches,” Johnson said.
