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Courtney Cronin
Chicago — Thirteen days removed from throwing game-sealing interception in loss green Bay Packers, Caleb Williams Earned a heavy dose of liberation.
Chicago Bears They came from behind in a tremendous fourth-quarter rally in which they erased a 10-point deficit, recovered an onside kick and scored a touchdown – all in a two-minute span – to force overtime. They defeated the Packers 22–16 for their 11th win of the season when Williams launched a 46-yard pass. dj moore Walk-off caught in the end zone to secure the win.
“I knew it was good,” Williams said of his overtime touchdown pass. “You’ve got to have that belief, you’ve got to have that confidence, you’ve got to have that aggression. You practice well, you make plays like that in practice. It was just like practice, and when the play is called and a moment like that comes, it’s time to hit it, it’s time to win the game.”
The play that led to Williams’ game-winning throw was set up after the 24-year-old quarterback and coach Ben Johnson met face-to-face on Thursday.
Williams said, “I was watching film in his office and we discussed little things throughout the play and the next day we came out and discussed it and put it into practice.” “It ended up working out just like we thought.”
During the first Bears-Packers meeting of the season at Lambeau Field on December 7, Green Bay cornerback kesin nixon Williams caught a fourth down throw to win 28–21.
In the final moments of Saturday night’s meeting, Nixon was once again at the center of the action, draped over Moore as he sprinted into the end zone and lofted a pass to end the game.
“I saw the defense go one-on-one,” Moore said. “I knew Caleb was going to give me opportunities with the ball like he did in practice and we worked on it.”
Bears defenders watching the game from the sidelines had an idea of where Williams would launch the ball after watching the quarterback connect with Moore in the game two days earlier. Without Rome Odunze (feet) and Luther Burden III (ankle), Moore was targeted a team-high seven times and had five catches for 97 yards and a touchdown.
“DJ was getting a lot of goals and a lot of deep shots [in practice],” Security Jaquan Brisker Said. “To be honest, he caught it on one of our safeties and it was on the left side. Like the same thing, going to Halas [Hall]I swear, when the ball was in the air, I knew he was going to catch it, it was crazy,”
Johnson said: “I thought Caleb threw a dime in practice and DJ came down with him, and we hoped it may or may not happen, but we got it done at the right time. DJ ran a great route, and Caleb threw him a great ball. I think it’s also a testament to our preparation during the week. I think coaches do a great job of coming up with good ideas to put our players in good spots and when you’re out there. And you implement it on the practice field, it becomes a game-day reality for us.”
Williams leads the NFL with six comeback wins after trailing in the fourth quarter, and his six-game winning drive this season extends his record by any Bears starting quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger. He is the only Bears quarterback in franchise history to throw touchdowns in the last 30 seconds of the fourth quarter and overtime.
“It was a great moment,” Williams said. “I’ve got a lot of great moments coming. I think it’s a signature moment for us as a team to be able to build that confidence. A signature moment for us is that we’re in that position with 11 wins and everything at our fingertips right where we want to be, I’ll put it that way.”
Saturday’s win is the Bears’ first overtime win since defeating the Ravens in 2017. The Bears now have six wins this season, the most wins in a season since the 1970 merger, after trailing in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
“I don’t think I’ve been around a team like that when it’s that late in the game, they don’t see eye to eye,” Johnson said. “You don’t feel any frustration on the sidelines at any stage. You can feel it a little bit in the stadium. I could feel the fans come back to life after we got a little bit of momentum in the fourth quarter, but our guys, they don’t miss a beat. They just keep going and they know if we keep going, good things will come.”
