By the steps they took, he was referring to the timing and execution of the passing offense. When he wasn’t being sacked and separated from the ball, or throwing to opposing cornerback Jaylon Jones, Williams was throwing the ball downfield in a way the Bears hadn’t done in either of his first two games.

It wasn’t winning football. He saw it as losing football that could later be used to win.

The first drive of the fourth quarter was perhaps when Williams showed what he can really do. They drove 70 yards in 13 plays to a 1-yard TD pass that he threw to Rome Odunze. They converted on all three third downs during the march.

The two-point pass failed, however, and the Bears still trailed 14-9. He later threw to tight end Cole Kmet for a 6-yard TD.

His 363 passing yards broke the rookie record of 314, set by Mitchell Trubisky against the Lions in December 2017.

He finished with 33 completed passes in 52 attempts, a total not normally seen on winning teams.

“I mean, I’m, you know, I do what the team needs, you know what I mean?” Williams said. “And so if it’s 50 times, it’s 50 times, I can’t have the two turnovers on those 50 attempts, you know.”

On this day, for the third straight game, the Bears didn’t have a running game to complement his passes, so they needed his attempts and completions.

“And if it comes down to 50 attempts and we’re throwing the ball around, or if it comes down to, you know, 10 attempts, it’s whatever the team needs, whatever the team needs to win,” Williams said.

Their offense was completely stalled at the goal line, with the Colts inside the 1 in the second quarter. The final play was an unfortunate and possibly ill-conceived option pass to D’Andre Swift for a loss of 12 yards.

“I think maybe I didn’t get to the edge quick enough or, or whatever the case may have been, but they didn’t pre-crash, you know, like they normally do or like we saw them film,” Williams said of the edge defenders. “And you know, they made a good move, had an extra overhang player there. And it could have been, you know, through the gun or whatever the case may have been.”

Williams said he had the option to change the game, but he didn’t.

Beyond those botched plays and the strip sack he took in the second half, Williams’s biggest regret may have been not being able to beat the defense before it finally caved in the closing stages.

“They work hard every week to do what they do,” Williams said.

“They’re doing well. And we’re going to get better offensively.

“Obviously, you know, the defense is playing great. You know, they don’t want to put points on the board, but to, I mean, I think it was two (Bears) interceptions or something, you know, to have two interceptions on their side is all we need for the offense, you know.”

Williams is ready to play the waiting game. There are 14 left and if the improvement in offense comes sooner rather than later, better days could come, even if the schedule gets tougher later.

“Like I said, it’s a long season,” he said. “And so being able to, you know, adjust and change and adapt to the players and the people that we have in these rooms, because we have special guys, whether it’s offensive line, running backs and, you know, wide receivers.

“And so, you know, being able to adapt and all that stuff. I think it starts with communication and that’s something that’s consistent throughout a long season, throughout a game where, you know, rhythm, you know, getting off to a fast start, you know, throughout a game where you know, you want to get things going, you want to be consistent, you want to be explosive, all those different things.”

Next week against the Rams they’ll try to put all those things together, but this time with a win.

Twitter: BearsOnSI