Coach Matt Eberflus’ handling of the Bears’ Hail Mary loss against Caleb Williams’ hometown team “annoyed” the locker room, the quarterback told Esquire magazine in a cover story for their April/May edition.
Williams opened up about the Bears’ notorious loss during an interview in the magazine conducted in late February in Copenhagen. Williams spent time in Denmark this offseason with his girlfriend, who is Danish.
Eberflus famously defended the Bears’ strategy at the end of the team’s 18-15 loss to the Commanders on Oct. 27. After the Bears scored with 27 seconds remaining to take their first lead of the game, the Bears allowed the Commanders to complete two passes along the sideline — one for 11 yards, the next for 13 — to move to the Washington 48. That put the end zone within range, and quarterback Jayden Daniels threw the ball 63 yards in the air for a 52-yard touchdown.
Famously, the Hail Mary was caught by Noah Brown, the receiver that Tyrique Stevenson was supposed to be guarding. The cornerback began the play with his back turned to the snap because he was too busy waving at fans, and later jumped for the pass instead of staying on the ground.
Eberflus said after the game that the Commanders’ sideline completions didn’t matter, even though an incompletion on the penultimate pass would have made it impossible for Daniels to throw into the end zone.
“How [Eberflus] handled it at that time, for that game, was, I think, one of the things that throughout the locker room people talked about and were annoyed by,” Williams told the magazine.
The Bears fired Eberflus the next month after another late-game gaffe in Detroit. The locker room was annoyed then, too, with cornerback Jaylon Johnson barking at the coaching staff after Eberflus refused to take a timeout as the clock expired.
Williams appeared on the cover of the “Mavericks of Sports” edition of the magazine wearing a pink and maroon rugby shirt and plaid overcoat. His comments to Esquire marked the first time he’s talked publicly about the locker room’s annoyance with Eberflus, though he said at Halas Hall three days after the Hail Mary loss that “right in that moment, you’re angry … you’re furious that you lost and you lost in that way.”
The Bears lost 10 games in a row during Williams’ rookie year — under Eberflus and then interim head coach Thomas Brown — before winning the season finale at Lambeau Field.
Williams told Esquire he was “so beat up mentally, physically [and] spiritually” by the late-season losses.
“When I got home, I got in my bed, I just dropped a few tears,” he said.
Williams said he hopes the struggles the Bears endured last season will help him this year.
“I think those losses were pretty important for me and my growth,” Williams told the magazine. “To go on a losing streak, to be in this position and be at the helm of it, was definitely important for me. Just being able to see how I need to be when times are bad. …
“I’m going to work my tail off to never be in that situation again.”
As for Williams’ new head coach? He said that the plan for his pairing with Ben Johnson is “to go win big.”