It was one of those rare moments where you know where you were when it happened. The Chicago Bears were locked in battle with the Los Angeles Rams during the divisional round of the playoffs. L.A. held a 17-10 lead, thanks in large part to the strong play of their defense. Chicago and quarterback Caleb Williams had one last chance with 1:50 to go in the game. It was touchdown or go home. The drive started well with an 18-yard pass. Two plays later, the Bears were knocking on the door at the Rams’ 14-yard line.
Then the drive stalled. Two Williams incompletions led to 4th-and-4. This was the game. Without a 1st down and a quick spike or a touchdown, the game was over. What followed was one of the craziest, most clutch plays in Bears history.
Everybody will tell you a play like that never works. Quarterbacks who continually drop further and further back either get sacked or are forced to throw the ball up, where it is usually intercepted. Yet Williams still had more than enough arm from almost 50 yards away to hit Cole Kmet in the back of the end zone. It was utterly impossible. At last, the Bears quarterback went into vivid detail about the play, from his thought process before the snap to what went through his hand on the drop, during his appearance on Maxx Crosby’s podcast.
It’s crazy Caleb Williams went through all those details in mere seconds.
If you ever thought NFL quarterbacks weren’t a different breed, this should dispel that. Williams went from recognizing his primary receiving options were covered, to planning his usual spin-out scramble to buy time, to realizing the edge rushers had the angle on him, to retreating back to buy time, to realizing he had a favorable matchup with Kmet in the end zone. All of that happened in the space of four or five seconds. Then, for good measure, Williams was so confident in his ability that he knew the ball was a touchdown the moment he let it fly.
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In a playoffs that featured the Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl, most people will likely remember this postseason for that throw in that moment. The only tragedy is that it ultimately wasn’t enough. Though the Bears forced overtime, they ultimately fell 20-17 after Williams’ third interception of the night. He’d be the first to tell you he didn’t play well enough. There is a lot of work to do before next season, and Williams sounded eager to get back to work throughout the interview.
| Game & Opponent | Play Description | Completion Probability | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| vs. Los Angeles Rams (Jan 18, 2026) | 9-yard TD pass to Cole Kmet on 4th-and-4 with 18 seconds left. | 16.9% (Next Gen Stats) | Tied Game (Lost in OT) |
| vs. Green Bay Packers (Dec 20, 2025) | 46-yard walk-off TD pass to DJ Moore in overtime. | 23.1% | Won Game |
Williams’ goal for 2026 should be obvious.
More efficiency. The Bears can’t continuously rely on late-game heroics to carry them through. It may have worked incredibly well this past season (seven 4th quarter comebacks), but such things are fickle. They tend to go away the next year. That is why Caleb Williams must focus on improving his overall efficiency. That means stacking completions and hitting the layups. This will keep the Bears ahead of the sticks and make scoring points far easier. That, in turn, should lead to more conventional wins.
Williams has said he needs to improve his footwork and overall operation. It is why several of his throws were off-target too often. This isn’t anything unprecedented. Plenty of quarterbacks coming into the NFL suffer from this problem. It comes from college offenses not really focusing on the fundamentals of playing the pro style nearly as much as they used to. Head coach Ben Johnson had to give him a crash course in the process, and such things take time. It was clear Williams progressed quickly. Now comes mastering it.
