After Caleb Williams watched Seattle Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen leap into the air to grab his fourth-down pass late Thursday night, the Chicago Bears quarterback stalked off toward the sideline, shaking his head. His mouth was set in a straight line as he yanked his helmet straps loose.
Williams generally has stayed remarkably composed throughout the Bears’ wild 10-game losing streak — a franchise-record-tying stretch that has been bleak enough to break any player’s spirit, much less a rookie quarterback trying to find his way in the NFL.
But as the seconds ticked down at Soldier Field and fans chanted “Sell the Team!” at the conclusion of a wet, 6-3 loss to the Seahawks that dropped the Bears to 4-12, Williams looked mad. And afterward at his postgame news conference, he voiced the emotions he felt in the final moments on the field.
“I was frustrated. Still frustrated. Probably will be frustrated till tomorrow, till after I get a chance to watch it,” Williams said. “I didn’t play well enough. I didn’t help put the team in a good position to win, a better position to win, and that’s what it is.”
Williams’ fadeaway pass meant for DJ Moore was well short of his target as safety Coby Bryant ran free and flattened the quarterback as he was throwing. Woolen’s resulting interception, leaping up behind Keenan Allen, was Williams’ first since Oct. 13.
But the struggles of Williams and the Bears offense went well beyond the final play and even beyond a five-minute, botched final drive in which poor clock management, questionable coaching decisions and errant throws won out over a couple of magical plays Williams also orchestrated.
“We just obviously weren’t detailed enough everywhere, so we’ve all got to be better,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “And we definitely didn’t do a good enough job as players coming in with the short week.”
Williams completed 16 of 28 passes for just 122 yards — his third-lowest total of the season — and a 53 passer rating. He had just 76 net passing yards because he took seven sacks for a loss of 46 yards. His only games with fewer passing yards were his NFL debut and the 19-3 loss to the New England Patriots that a couple of days later resulted in the firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
Williams was sacked once on each of the Bears’ drives in the second half — when they went scoreless — and his final four sacks lost 10, 14, 8 and 5 yards.
“Today we played two sides of the ball today pretty well — special teams and defense — and offense we didn’t play well,” Williams said. “There were miscues. There were stupid sacks I was taking, losing 10, 14 yards, which was frustrating. But I will definitely take the heat for this one, just because of some situations that I put us in.”
There was no real silver lining for the Bears in such an ugly game against a mediocre Seahawks team in front of a national audience. The Bears are beyond that at this point with just one game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field remaining in a dismal season few saw coming. But Williams was correct in pointing to the defense and special teams units as the reason the game was close.
After allowing 102 points and 1,256 yards in the previous three games, the defense buckled down to hold the Seahawks to two first-half field goals and 265 yards. They had three sacks, and nickel Kyler Gordon gave Bears fans their biggest reason to celebrate Thursday — a touchdown that eventually was overturned.
Late in the third quarter, Gordon stripped tight end Pharaoh Brown of the football and recovered it. He appeared to run untouched 62 yards to the end zone, and the officials initially ruled it a touchdown. But upon review Gordon was ruled down by contact.
“Apparently someone touched my leg,” Gordon said. “They’ve got to show me the replay before I believe it. I thought I’d be able to get a free one. I would just go to the house and celebrate. Everyone, the whole crowd got loud.”
The Bears still got the ball, but they failed to capitalize. Williams took a 14-yard sack when two defensive players rushed past left tackle Larry Borom, who was filling in for injured starter Braxton Jones, and the Bears couldn’t recover.
Interim coach Thomas Brown said he talked with Williams “a couple of times” about getting the ball out faster to avoid such drive-killing sacks.
“I put it upon myself to call plays where the ball can come out faster,” Brown said.
For a few minutes, it looked as if Williams could help the Bears gloss over all of those issues by directing a winning drive for the first time in 2½ months. Twice under heavy pressure he made spectacular throws, the first a 14-yarder to DJ Moore on fourth-and-5. He also hit Rome Odunze with a 15-yard pass on third-and-14.
Williams said he was hit in the throat after that play, and he threw an incompletion on the next play, after which the Bears burned a timeout to avoid a delay-of-game penalty. Williams’ next two throws were incomplete, and instead of turning to kicker Cairo Santos for a 58-yard field-goal attempt, Brown opted for a fourth-and-10 play.
The interception followed.
Williams’ rough outing came four days after a pretty solid showing in a loss to the Detroit Lions, and Thursday was an opportunity to build on it against a Seahawks defense that wasn’t rated particularly high.
Instead, in the home finale, the Bears offense turned in a performance representative of the team’s entire season — frustrating.
“It’s just tough to go out like that, to end the year at Soldier,” Kmet said. “It’s been a long, tough year. … Definitely not the season we envisioned coming in here.”
