\n<\/p>\n
GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2014 Cole Kmet was as open as a tailgate Leinenkugel\u2019s.<\/p>\n
When quarterback Caleb Williams rolled to his left on fourth-and-one from the Packers\u2019 14 with 27 seconds left to play Sunday, the Bears tight end ran the same corner route that he turned into a touchdown one game earlier in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The Packers fell for it, just as the Eagles did, crashing toward the line of scrimmage and focusing on running back D\u2019Andre Swift in the left flat.<\/p>\n
By the time Kmet\u2019s route reached the 2-yard line, the closest defender, cornerback Keisean Nixon, was four yards behind him. All Williams had to do was what he did the week before \u2014 loft the ball and lead the tight end into the back left corner of an otherwise empty end zone. A touchdown and extra point would have tied the game \u2014 or coach Ben Johnson could have gone to two to try to bury the Bears\u2019 rival.<\/p>\n
Instead, Williams left the throw short.<\/p>\n
He rolled left, planted his right foot exactly halfway between the 2 and the 0 painted on the half-frozen turf at Lambeau Field, and couldn\u2019t manage enough strength to throw the ball over Nixon\u2019s head. The cornerback leapt, intercepted the pass and sealed the 28-21 win in the 211th<\/sup> Bears-Packers game Sunday night.<\/p>\n \u201cIn those moments, you want to put the ball in play and trust your guy \u2014 or try to have your guy make a play,\u201d Williams said. \u201cJust gotta give him a better ball.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a hard throw, Williams said. Throwing while rolling left is supposed to be his superpower. Last week, quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett said that only Patrick Mahomes does it better, joking that Williams \u201cfreaky stuff in his body where he can rotate that torso and flick it like it ain\u2019t nothin.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In a season that has mostly gone right for the Bears, though, the throw went wrong Sunday, preventing Williams from his sixth fourth-quarter comeback. It knocked the 9-4 Bears from the top seed in the NFC to the last team in the playoffs, were the season to end today.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I was pretty open. \u2026\u201d Kmet said \u201cThere\u2019s a million other things going on that Caleb\u2019s gotta dissect in front of him. A tough way to end it, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n The start wasn\u2019t so great, either. Williams\u2019 struggles in the first half combined with a porous pass defense to give the Packers a 14-3 lead at halftime. Twenty-two minutes into the game, Williams was 1-for-7 for two yards. He went 6-for-14 for 32 yards in the first half, with 10 of those yards coming on a third-and-19 checkdown with 10 seconds left in the first half.<\/p>\n He was remarkable after halftime, though, going 13-for-21 for two touchdowns and a 96.1 passer rating in the second half. Williams credited a quick halftime reset in which the Bears reminded each other to focus on the details.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s frustration, because we shot ourselves in the foot more than anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n If the Bears are a playoff team, they can\u2019t afford for Williams to turn in another dud of a half. They need to at least split their final four games to feel comfortable with their playoff chances.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to start faster, we need to start faster,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI think that would do us well as a team \u2014 and as an offense, especially.\u201d<\/p>\n In the first half, the Bears struggled to keep pace with Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who finished the game 17-for-25 for 234 yards, three touchdowns and a 120.7 passer rating. In the second half, Williams eclipsed him \u2014 the Bears\u2019 three possessions before the final interception ended in two touchdowns and a field goal. He rolled right and threw a one-yard touchdown pass to a diving Olamide Zaccheaus in the third quarter and found tight end Colston Loveland for a one-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n Josh Jacobs ran for a two-yard touchdown on third down with 3:32 left to give the Packers a seven-point lead. He\u2019d kept the drive alive when he bounced off a Gervon Dexter tackle that would have forced fourth down, plowing forward for a 21-yard gain.<\/p>\n Down 28-21, Williams inherited the ball at the 26 and promptly hit Luther Burden down the left sideline for 27 yards. Two plays later, he scrambled right and found little-used receiver Devin Duvernay crossing from left to right. The 24-yard pass gave the Bears the ball at the Packers\u2019 23 at the two-minute warning.<\/p>\n \u201cCaleb was doing everything he could,\u201d coach Ben Johnson said. \u201cHe put his Superman cape on a few times to not go down and extend the play.\u201d<\/p>\n Wanting to bleed clock and lean on a run game that ground down the Packers in the second half, Johnson called three-straight handoffs to Kyle Monangai \u2014 for six yards, three yards, and then no gain.<\/p>\n The two sides exchanged timeouts to plan for fourth-and-one at the 14. When Williams rolled left, he saw three defenders keying on Swift. The Packers trailed Williams with a defender, too, taking away his ability to scramble for the yard.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a lot of options there,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n The one Williams chose didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not always going to work in our favor,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe work our tail off to try and not have these situations, but when the situations do come, we got to try and go make plays and try and come back and make the right plays to seal the win.\u201d<\/p>\n