For Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears, the magic runs out but the future is bright

CHICAGO — The moment it most seemed like the Chicago Bears and quarterback Caleb Williams were going to pull off yet another late-game miraculous win wasn’t the most obvious one.

The 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cole Kmet that forced overtime against the Los Angeles Rams was crazy, chaotic and captivating, but it was a few plays earlier that signaled something special might somehow happen again for these Bears.

After forcing the Rams to punt with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, punter Ethan Evans gifted Chicago with great field position at the 50-yard line after shanking the kick just 33 yards. The crazy endings that the Bears forced this season were usually precipitated by a convenient circumstance, and that punt likely made all 60,000 fans in attendance believers yet again.

But not this time. 

After forcing overtime, Williams threw his third interception of the night on the Bears’ first possession. The Rams then marched down the field to kick a game-winning field goal in a 20-17 victory to advance to the NFC championship game next week versus the Seattle Seahawks.

“It’s a frustration. It’s a fire,” Williams said after the game. “I’m excited, though, also. Obviously not happy about the outcome. Obviously frustrated about the outcome. But that’s over with, and I can’t go back and change it. Going to go back and watch, figure out how I can be better for the near future and help this organization get to where we want to be.”

While it’s been a magical season for the Bears — the best for the franchise since making the Super Bowl in 2007 — playing with fire all year always ran the risk of them getting burned at the most inopportune time. Seven fourth-quarter comebacks in the regular and postseason was an impressive feat, but it required you putting yourself behind with limited time remaining in the game and hoping for a miracle. The two comeback wins over the Green Bay Packers in Week 16 and the wild-card round came from an onside kick recovery and missed extra point, respectively. The Week 4 win over the Las Vegas Raiders was decided by a game-sealing blocked kick. A 56-yard punt return led to a game-winning field goal against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11.

It’s great when the magic works but heartbreaking when it doesn’t.

Williams was this season’s comeback kid: his six fourth-quarter comeback victories in the regular season tied Peyton Manning’s single-season record for the most in league history by a first- or second-year quarterback. But he was inaccurate with the football all season. His 58% completion percentage was fifth-worst in the league, barely better than Minnesota’s J.J. McCarthy (57.6%) and barely worse than Cleveland’s Dillon Gabriel (59.5%).

That didn’t matter as much when breaking the single-season franchise record for passing yards (3,942), totaling 30 touchdowns, or winning the team’s first playoff game since 2011 last week against the Packers, but his 19 incompletions and 54.8% completion percentage were glaring in a three-point overtime loss. Williams had been protective of the football all season (seven interceptions) but throwing off target led to the three interceptions he threw, most importantly the one in overtime.

“I didn’t think he had any jitters or anything like that,” head coach Ben Johnson said when asked about Williams’ turnovers. “I thought he was the normal Caleb that I’ve grown accustomed to. Like I said, those guys made plays, and we didn’t.”

The same mistakes Chicago overcame or avoided this year to roll off nine wins during a 10-game stretch are the same ones that failed them in the end against Los Angeles. The Bears officially only had three dropped passes, according to Pro Football Focus, but there were at least double as many passes that touched Bears receivers hands that ended up incomplete.

The explosive offense that set a franchise record in total yards (6,282) could only muster 17 points and failed to convert on four plays from inside the Rams’ 5-yard line on its second-to-last possession in the fourth quarter. If not for the Bears’ suffocating defense, which sacked Stafford four times and held the Rams to 5 for 16 on third down, this likely would not have been as close on the scoreboard.

Even with the errors, Williams showed why the Bears drafted him No. 1 overall in the 2024 draft. He didn’t waver after throwing a red zone interception on the first possession of the game, which could have immediately snowballed into another, as was the case earlier in the day for Houston Texans quarterback C.J.Stroud.

Instead on the next possession he marched the Bears down the field, capped off by Williams keeping a play alive long enough to throw across the middle to a streaking D.J. Moore for a 3-yard touchdown. Facing a third-and-10 late in the fourth quarter, Williams stood tall in the pocket and hit receiver Rome Odunze on a post route for a 16-yard gain, which was aided by a roughing the passer penalty. Of course, there was the fourth-and-4 play with just 18 seconds left in regulation when he dropped back, ran east and west, turned his back to the defense before turning back at the last second to launch a pass off the back of his foot to the waiting hands of Kmet in the corner of the endzone that tied the score at 17-17. 

“That’s ridiculous,” Johnson said of the touchdown pass. “You talk about that fourth-and-8 from last week and how outstanding that was, and I think this one was probably even another level ahead of that. There’s some things that you just can’t coach.”

This wasn’t the finish that the Bears had hoped for, but it was a finish they could have foreseen. They lived on the edge all season and finally stumbled into the canyon.

The season ended in a failure, but Williams sees it as a learning experience. He said he’ll use the result as an opportunity to improve his accuracy, his mechanics, his chemistry with his receivers. He’ll get better from this experience.

“In these moments, you feel that you let your team down. You feel this or that,” Williams said. “It’s a good lesson learned for us, first time being in this situation for me and for us as a team. 

“I’m excited for what’s to come.”

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