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Instant reaction to the Bears 42-38 shootout loss to the 49ers
The Bears had one last shot to win and fell two yards short in a shootout. Heres the instant reaction on the loss from Lou Canellis and Anthony Herron.
CHICAGO - How do you feel about Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams now?
The Bears lost a wild shootout Sunday night to the San Francisco 49ers, 42-38, and Williams had a chance to win it on the final play. But he did not. Last minute wins for the Bears have become the norm. They had already won six coming from behind in the final two minutes, but this time Williams’ mad scramble and final pass led to nothing, just defeat.
So is Williams the Bears' guy?
This was his 33rd straight start since being drafted No. 1 overall in 2024. His career win-loss record is 16-17. He’s seen the bottom and glimpsed the top. He’s been involved in—led the way to, you might say--a 10-game losing streak last season and a 9-1 win streak this year.
At times, he looks like the slipperiest, most elusive, most inventive, most clutch quarterback since Patrick Mahomes. But there are moments, like the final one against the 49ers, when he looks more like Bears cast-off Justin Fields.
Final Word: In a Wild West shootout, the Chicago Bears' offense proves its playoff ready
Losing to the 49ers in a game where they just ran out of time isn’t a death knell. Instead, the Bears deserve to hold their heads high. We learned this team's offense is ready for the playoffs.
If Bears games are routinely going to come down to the final drive, the final play, then the last one against the 49ers has to be seen as a measuring stick. Williams scrambled to his left, hesitated, ran around, looked for an open man in the end zone, decided against running, backed up and finally threw a desperate and weak incompletion to no one.
Should he have done more in that critical moment with four seconds left? Coach Ben Johnson took the blame for the failed play, saying, "It’s on me. I didn’t get him the play soon enough."
Bears players lined up wrong, motion wasn’t correct, pass routes were messed up. Williams says he couldn’t communicate everything fast enough. "We had to try to make something out of nothing," he explained.
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Bright spots remain after Bears fall short against 49ers
FOX 32s Lou Canellis breaks down the Bears loss to the 49ers and takes a look ahead to a pivotal game against the Lions.
You wonder about the details that could be the strength or undoing of the Bears. No team can count on coming from behind in the final moments to win every game. Luck will bite you in the end. This failed ending may simply be the odds catching up to the Bears.
So you wonder why Williams too often misses easy plays, easy targets, yet makes spectacular plays at random moments. His tremendous skill set is obvious, but a steady, methodical, computer-like accuracy and routine early-game progress is not.
Johnson’s goal was for Williams to complete 70% of his passes this season. He’s competing 57.9% of them. That’s worse than last year when he completed 62.5% of his passes. He’s not holding onto the ball as long as he did last season when he was sacked a scary 68 times. And that’s good. He’s only been sacked 23 times in 2025. But what about that accuracy? What about making those simple throws all the time?
Was that an NFC Playoff preview? Takeaways from the Chicago Bears shootout loss vs. the 49ers
Here’s what we learned from the Bears’ shootout loss to the 49ers, where the Bears went toe-to-toe with an NFC contender.
This all may be nitpicking, maybe no different from wondering why he still paints his fingernails, like he did in college. But we relentlessly pick apart NFL quarterbacks because they are just about everything for a team—the soul and engine. And we compare and contrast. And we do this with Williams, the Bears franchise quarterback.
Consider New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. He was taken after Williams in the 2024 draft, but this year he’s had 11 games with a passing completion rate above 70%. He’s thrown for 4,203 yards, 30 touchdowns, and has a season passer rating of 112.9. All those numbers dwarf Williams’. So you wonder.
Consider efficiency. In Maye’s last game, a win over the admittedly hapless Jets, he completed 19 of 21 passes (90.5%) for 256 yards, 5 touchdowns, no interceptions and a 157.0 passer rating. Willliams is improving, but such a precision-type outing seems out of the question with the way he scrambles, pirouettes, and often misses the obvious.
Grading the Chicago Bears in their primetime shootout vs. San Francisco
Here's how we graded the Bears' primetime showdown with the 49ers, where the offenses were flying and the defenses were nonexistent.
Maye is surgical, stands tall, little emotion. Williams is loosey-goosey, on the move, elusive. Somewhere in between the two would be perfection.
As the 2025 season comes to a close, we are left to wonder how far the Bears can go with this young quarterback (only 24) from Southern Cal, whom they’ve put all their trust in. That last play against the 49ers is just a small thing in reality. But we’ll see if a play like that comes up again for the Bears in the postseason. That will be some test, indeed. For Caleb Williams and the Bears nation.
Dig deeper:
Want more? Read some of Rick Telander’s recent columns for Fox 32:
- How Notre Dame should fit itself into he Wild West of college football | Telander
- With Packers looming, Caleb Williams looks like the quarterback Chicago has waited 75 years for: Telander
- Notre Dame's playoff snub could trigger seismic shifts across college football: Telander
- Why Ben Johnson may be the Bears' best move in decades: Telander
- The Cardiac Bears win by small margins & beat injured squads. Get used to it | Telander