Declan Doyle on how shootout vs. 49ers has prepared Bears for playoffs

For the first time since he's been the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, Caleb Williams showed high level maturity, growth, and talent in the shootout loss to the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday night.

While the team has not asked Williams to do everything for them on offense and have complemented him with a great rushing attack, the second-year quarterback finished the Week 17 loss with 330 passing yards, two touchdowns, while not throwing an interception or taking a sack.

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For several seasons, the Bears have not been a team that could have their fanbase believing in their ability to hang tight in an offensive shootout game as they did against the 49ers. Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who is in his first year with the team, was highly impressed with Williams, believing that what the offense went through last week should help them get prepared for the playoffs.

"We felt like with an offense like that on the other side, the game could turn into something like that where it's a shootout and you’ve got to go blow for blow," Doyle said. "We knew that and all week we were preparing for that. Just in case that happened. The last time we had to do that was really Cincinnati where you're going against a high-powered offense. A lot of games into the postseason are like that. The mentality was, what we control, we can control. When other things are going on, it really doesn't matter.

"Caleb did a great job of maintaining composure, really the whole offense. Coming in at halftime, being able to talk to those guys and look them in the eye and just really seeing no flinch from any of them, being really confident about going out and executing. I think that he did a great job of just controlling what is immediately in my control right now. Obviously, we don't make the play right at the end, but it was good to see growth from the whole offense in a game like that where your offense has got to do a great job of scoring we were able to put up points and obviously we want to be able to finish it there at the end."

While the offense came up short in the end against the 49ers, with Williams coming up short on the potential game-winning touchdown pass, there was plenty of optimism to come out of what was shown in Week 17. Williams is proving week after week more reason for the fanbase and the franchise to believe that he's their long-term answer at the quarterback position.

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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Declan Doyle on how shootout vs. 49ers has prepared Bears for playoffs