On a day where Caleb Williams broke the franchise record for most passing yards by a rookie quarterback (2,356 yards), he also led the Bears to 11 points in the final 22 seconds of regulation.
Williams' poise on the Bears' final two drives of the fourth quarter that resulted in a 1-yard touchdown pass to Keenan Allen followed by a two-point conversion throw to DJ Moore and Cairo Santos' game-tying 48-yard field goal to force overtime.
While the Bears ultimately fell to Minnesota 30-27 Sunday at Soldier Field, Williams' clutch performance against a talented, blitz-heavy Vikings defense stood out to his teammates.
"He's a ball player," Allen told reporters after the game. "When we need him to make a play, he's gonna make a play. He's a great guy to have when the game is on the line."
"He's just fighting," rookie receiver Rome Odunze said. "Fighting for us, fighting for the team. That's the type of player he is, the type of person he is. When you got someone like that at the helm of the offense, you're gonna go in play in and play out and give everything you got."
That fight was apparent when Williams and the offense took the field down 27-16 with 1:47 left in the game and executed a scoring drive that featured eight straight pass plays. On a crucial fourth-and-3, Williams connected with Odunze for 14 yards to reach the red zone.
After an incomplete pass, Williams hit tight end Cole Kmet for eight yards, running back Roschon Johnson for 10 yards then finished the possession with the TD throw to Allen and Moore's two-point conversion.
"True grit," coach Matt Eberflus said of Williams' late-game play. "Inspiring to the whole football team. Just really good execution. He did a really good job, I thought, all day. Like I said earlier in the week, that's a tough defense to go against with the different looks, the pressures, variation of coverage. I thought he did a really good job of finding the space, as we talked about early in the week, getting the ball to our skill."
Williams and the offense re-took the field with just 21 seconds to play and no timeouts to work with after the Bears recovered Santos' first onside kick of the season, which was recovered at the Chicago 43 by Tarvarius Moore.
Williams then put the Bears in position to set up the game-tying field goal with a 27-yard laser across the middle to Moore, who went down at the Minnesota 30.
"I think it starts from all the small things," Williams said. "From DJ and everyone in the huddle communicating well, getting out there and then obviously, speaking on practice, we discussed many times about, 'if this happens on this play, this is what we're gonna do, this is where I'd like you to be and I'll be right there with you to be able to rip it and get the ball to you.'
"The other guys did a great job. Obviously, everybody's a target, but the other guys grabbed the attention and allowed that hole to open up. I saw it and ripped it to DJ. He made a great catch and got down."
Williams gave credit to the entire operation, but Kmet didn't hesitate to call out the rookie's impressive level of command, not just on the ball to Moore, but throughout the game.
Kmet cited two of Williams' completions on the team's first touchdown drive at the end of the first quarter. On third-and-12, Williams slung a 40-yard pass to Allen in traffic then on second-and-12 and facing pressure, perfectly placed 30-yard pass to Swift while on the run.
"Some of those are a little risky if you're asking me," Kmet joked. "The drop in the bucket [to Swift] and the one to Keenan, but he put that on a thread. There's no good defense for the perfect throw. There were some of those — I mean, the one at the end of the game [to DJ] is just really unbelievable. Just really shows off the arm talent that he has. I think everybody, [Minnesota] included kind of knows where the ball should be going in that scenario. To be able to layer the ball like that, fit it in that window, get it to DJ and just execute that scenario, really impressive and something I haven't seen here."
For the second straight week, Williams — who completed 32 passes for 340 yards and two TDs — and the Bears offense found a rhythm by spreading the ball around to their top targets.
Moore led the team in receiving with a season-high 106 yards and catching all seven of his targets while Allen had his best game of the year with nine catches for 86 yards. Kmet and Odunze combined for 103 yards on 12 catches.
Much like last week, the offense's improvement start with play caller Thomas Brown. Williams lauded the way Brown has coached him through the past two weeks, including his decisiveness and in-game communication.
"[With] Thomas, to be honest with you, I really do think it's just how he is that has helped," Williams said. "His, I don't want to use this word, but 'aura', I guess. He has a certain aura to him that he just allows you to play free. He knows what he wants.
"Throughout the game, play the game the right way, make adjustments, all these different things. Throw hot. Make the right reads. Play within the offense.
When it's time to be Superman ... that is what he tells me in the headset: 'go be Superman at the end of the game.'"
