How clutch have Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears been this season? They’re 3-3 when trailing by 10 or more points in the final five minutes of games. The rest of the NFL is 3-151 in those situations in 2025.
The Bears are seemingly finding new ways to erase seemingly insurmountable deficits, and the deeper they go -- hosting the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday for a spot in the NFC Championship Game -- the more they’re leaning on their young quarterback. The one earning a reputation of being one of the most clutch young quarterbacks in the league.
“There's not a whole lot you need to say to (Williams) on the sideline,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said Wednesday, via the team website. “We just make sure we're on the same page in terms of what the situation is, what we need to accomplish and how quickly we need to accomplish it. But beyond that, it's not like he needs a pep talk or a rah-rah or anything like that. He's ready to go.
“I've been saying it all along: he rises to the occasion time and time again. It's really impressive to see a young player like this be so clutch.”
Trailing 21-3 to the Packers at halftime last week, Williams led the Bears to his seventh fourth-quarter comeback of the season in the Wild Card Round, which is tied for the third-most, including playoffs, by any quarterback since 1950, trailing only Kirk Cousins (2022) and Matthew Stafford (2016) with eight.
The Bears’ 25 fourth-quarter points against the Packers were the third-most in playoff history, with Williams throwing for 184 yards and two TDs in the final 15 minutes -- the most yards in the final quarter of a playoff game since Tom Brady’s 196 against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Williams said he’s built for those situations.
“I feel calm in those moments,” Williams said. “I feel my conditioning is the best in those moments. I feel that I'm the best in those moments because of what I've prepared to be in those moments. For myself, it's just next play, next play, next play, and then when you have to go make a play, it's life or death in those moments.”
In training camp, Johnson tried to prepare his team for these life-and-death situations. He asked two Bears players -- guard Joe Thuney and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett -- to talk to the team about their experience in Super Bowl LI, when the Patriots erased a 28-3 deficit to win a championship. Thuney was on the winning side, and Jarrett was not.
Williams also sat next to Brady, the architect of that comeback, while he talked about that particular game to the league’s first-year players at the NFL’s Rookie Symposium in 2024. Brady’s message in a nutshell: What could have been the worst game of his career became his best because he and the Patriots didn’t run from adversity. They thrived amidst it.
Williams channeled Brady’s message when asked how he handles the stickiest of spots, driven by a fear of failure but also by a shot at greatness.
“It's about the next play,” Williams said. “It's about the mentality when we're in the moment. It's about honestly not wanting to go out that way and getting your tail whooped. Have a certain mindset, have a certain fight about you, and then it can either be one of your worst moments or one of your greatest moments.”