In sports, there is such thing as being a “glue guy.”

This is the person who binds together the team with guts and smart play.

Caleb Williams seemed like a glue guy for a different reason in Friday’s preseason 29-27 win over Kansas City.

Sometimes the ball seemed to be glued to Williams.

There’s no doubt he took a step back in how quickly he was processing the receivers and defense in Friday’s 29-27 preseason win, as he took until the Bears were down 17-0 and the Chiefs starting defense had left the game before he started moving the ball.

“I think some of it is just timing,” Williams told reporters after the game. “I think some of it is trusting the guys and some of it is also having my feet and eyes in the same place.

“For instance, there was one time when I ended up missing Rome (Odunze) because my feet were too fast and I was trying to get through all my reads. I ended up getting to a part where I had to scramble and I lost my footing. Those moments happen. It’s time to go and make a play. Those are going to happen in games. Everybody holds the ball too long at one point. At that point, just go make a play.”

There was a play when he stood looking into the end zone and had D’Andre Swift on a wide open checkdown right in front of him for an easy first down.

Nonthless, Williams did direct a touchdown drive in the two-minute drill, the starting offense scored 10 points. They all came against Kansas City backups, though, as it was ugly at times earlier.

“There was a second-and-3 where there was a sack and you don’t want to take sacks on first or second down,” Williams said. “I was frustrated with myself for that and anything other than taking a sack and getting the ball out of my hands, like scrambling, being able to stay on my feet and go make a play.

‘I think I understand the situation a bit better and probably most of those moments, I’d been able to understand the situation better, being second-and-3, the chances are a lot higher on making a play and being able to get the first down than if it’s third-and-8 or whatever the case may be.”

The problem with this is situational things such as down and distance should have already been ingrained in him from college or earlier.

Then there was the start to the game which wasn’t all his fault. It was more a problem with the entire offense being out of sync the way it has at times in preseason.

This was the botched handoff to Olamide Zaccheaus on an end-around play, followed by a Colston Loveland false start on the first possession.

“A lot of it is you start slow like we did, especially with a simple, easy play, mistiming a snap with a fast receiver flying across a fast motion,” Williams said. “When you have something like that that happens early in the game, that’s not what we want, especially in our (first series) – those are typically plays we’ve gone over multiple times.”

Coach Ben Johnson said they had scripted and walked through all of it and still fouled it up.

“Having those issues is frustrating,” Williams said. “Definitely need to fix that. That’s a big point of why we practice, why we have preseason–to get more reps, have those moments, be able to have a moment like that and be able to learn from that and correct it.”

Time is up for working at such things. Now they’ll begin to work toward game plans but Williams sees this as beneficial.

“I think part of that is it’s preseason,” Williams said. “We’re not game planning. We’re not doing as much as you would in a game week. We’re still practicing and doing our stuff, making sure all of our base stuff is down and working on all of that.”

This is one they’ve repeated throughout training camp and preseason, yet at some point practicing those plays and situations seem like they should take root and the mistakes still occasionally occur.

One old friend popped up. That was equipment malfunction. Rather than the helmet mic not working, it wasn’t even staying in the helmet and Williams had to keep having it fixed.

It’s preseason for the helmets, too.

“Like I said, it’s frustrating but you also understand that it is preseason, and the situation is different than it is in-season,” Williams said.

The skeptic would refer back to last year and say, no, it isn’t. It’s the kind of play early that will have Tyson Bagent supporters saying he should be the starter, even if his actual throws seem to take as long to get to a receiver as Williams does to get rid of the ball. If they could combine Williams’ arm with the Bagent processing, then there’s a quarterback.

The new coaching staff and a different roster deserve the benefit of the doubt until it actually is the regular season.

The regular season starts when they’re on the practice field next, on Monday. This is when excuses end.