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Caleb Williams pulled off a truly ridiculous throw to force overtime on Sunday.
It just wasn’t enough.
Williams and the Chicago Bears fell to the Los Angeles Rams 20-17 in their divisional round matchup on Sunday night at Soldier Field. That sent the Bears home from the playoffs and set up an NFC West battle between the Rams and the Seattle Seahawks to determine who from the conference will head to Super Bowl LIX next month.
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Williams, near the end of regulation, was facing a ton of pressure from the Rams defense on a short fourth down. The Bears were down by a touchdown, too, so this was their last shot to keep the game alive. Williams ended up scrambling back all the way to the 40 yard line — more than 20 yards from where he took the snap from — before he threw a perfect off-balanced fade to Cole Kemet. Remarkably, the throw found Kemet perfectly in the end zone.
The pass, despite the Bears starting the play on the 14-yard line, ended up traveling more than 51 yards through the air. That made it the longest completed pass by air distance in the red zone in the Next Gen Stats era, which started in 2016.
The angle from the NFL Network’s Stacey Dales, who was standing in the corner of the end zone at the time, was even better.
That kept hope alive for the Bears, who sank the extra point and eventually forced overtime. But Williams threw an interception midway through the extra period, thanks to a huge diving grab from Kam Curl, to give the ball back to the Rams.
That set up an eventual game-winning 42-yard field goal from Harrison Mevis. The kick lifted the Rams to the NFC championship game, where they’ll now take on the Seahawks next weekend and attempt to reach their first Super Bowl since the 2021 season.
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Williams went 23-of-42 for 257 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions in the loss on Sunday. While they lost, the throw was the second such fourth down scramble and heave he’s now made in as many weeks. He found Kemet on a deep fourth down after narrowly avoiding a sack to help lift the Bears past the Packers in the wild-card round.
A win for the Bears on Sunday would have sent them to their first conference championship game since the 2010 season. This was just the team’s third playoff appearance since that run.
Matthew Stafford went 20-of-42 for 258 yards in the win for the Rams. Kyren Williams had 87 yards and two scores on 21 carries, and Puka Nacua had 56 yards on five catches.
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While the Bears’ season is now over, Williams’ future with the Bears is undoubtedly bright with his second campaign in the NFL now in the books. Even though the interceptions — the last one in particular — got him in the end, Williams certainly pulled off some outstanding and truly entertaining throws down the stretch.
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