{"id":418920,"date":"2026-01-19T07:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/418920\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:57:08","slug":"caleb-williams-williams-ridiculous-td-pass-draws-raves-from-coach-teammates-after-bears-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/418920\/","title":{"rendered":"Caleb Williams’ Williams\u2019 \u2018ridiculous\u2019 TD pass draws raves from coach, teammates after Bears\u2019 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Caleb Williams<\/a>\u2019 last throw in regulation was a backpedaling, fourth-down rainbow that landed in Cole Kmet<\/a>\u2019s hands in the corner of the end zone for a breathtaking touchdown.<\/p>\n

His last throw of the game was the beginning of the end for Chicago\u2019s surprising season.<\/p>\n

Williams almost rallied the Bears to another memorable win on Sunday night. But he threw his third interception in overtime and Matthew Stafford<\/a> drove the Los Angeles Rams<\/a> to Harrison Mevis<\/a>\u2019 winning field goal in a 20-17 victory in the divisional round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough. In these moments, you feel that you let your team down,\u201d Williams said. \u201cYou feel this or that. It\u2019s a good lesson learned for us, first time being in this situation for me and for us as a team. I\u2019m excited for what\u2019s to come. But obviously going to go back and watch this and figure out how I can be better, and that\u2019s the exciting part.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Williams led Chicago to an NFL-record seven wins this season when trailing in last 2 minutes of regulation. He threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore<\/a> with 1:43 left in a 31-27 victory over Green Bay in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

This time, the Bears (12-7) were losing 17-10 when they got the ball back with 1:50 left in the fourth quarter. And, just like before, Williams delivered.<\/p>\n

Facing a fourth-and-4 at the Rams 14 with 27 seconds left, Williams took a shotgun snap and surveyed the field. The No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft was forced to backpedal as the pocket collapsed, and he scampered all the way back to the 40 with Jared Verse<\/a>, Josaiah Stewart<\/a> and Braden Fiske<\/a> all in pursuit for the Rams.<\/p>\n

Williams turned, saw Kmet in the end zone and threw the ball in his direction just as Verse and Stewart got to the second-year QB.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up getting a little bit of pressure, so try and break contain and just break angles and slow those guys down so that when I do turn around, I can have a little bit more time possibly to find somebody,\u201d Williams said, \u201cand they did a good job containing me, so I just gained a little bit more depth, and I saw Cole one-on-one over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kmet wrestled with Rams cornerback Cobie Turner before hauling in the pass, sending a charge through the crowd of 60,253 on a frigid night at Soldier Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like a pretty easy pitch-and-catch and kind of felt like it was in slow motion,\u201d Kmet said. \u201cI can\u2019t believe Caleb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bears coach Ben Johnson called the throw \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some things that you just can\u2019t coach. … He\u2019s got a knack, he\u2019s clutch,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

According to Next Gen Stats, Williams\u2019 pass traveled 51.2 yards in the air for the longest completed pass by air distance in the red zone since at least 2016. He made the throw from 26.5 yards behind the line of scrimmage; no quarterback since 2016, according to Next Gen Stats, had completed a pass from a depth of more than 22 yards.<\/p>\n

It had a completion probability of 17.8%.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most special throw that I\u2019ve ever seen. I\u2019ve seen him do that so many times this year,\u201d Bears safety Kevin Byard said.<\/p>\n

Williams also threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Moore on fourth down on the first play of the second quarter. But his three interceptions were costly.<\/p>\n

The Bears had a chance to win the game in overtime. They drove to the Los Angeles 48 before Williams was picked off by Rams safety Kam Curl<\/a> on a deep ball intended for Moore.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a miscommunication between him and I,\u201d Williams said. \u201cTried to flatten him off under the safety, and he kept it vertical from what I saw, obviously, in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NFL<\/p>\n

Jay Cohen, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Caleb Williams\u2019 last throw in regulation was a backpedaling, fourth-down rainbow that landed in Cole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-418920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}