CHICAGO — From most vantage points, it seemed like an ill-advised pass, a risky throw from Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams launched into a congested pocket of Soldier Field’s north end zone.
DJ Moore wasn’t the primary receiver on that third-quarter first-down play Sunday afternoon, but he had done his part in creating a bit of separation from Cleveland Browns cornerback Tyson Campbell.
Still, when Williams made his decision to take that end zone shot, all the visible breath inside this frigid lakeside stadium seemed to evaporate.
Where in the world was this ball headed?
Maybe a 50-50 opportunity for tight end Colston Loveland? Off the fingertips of Browns safety Grant Delpit? Into the hands of Campbell?
Nope.
In almost cartoonish fashion, Moore emerged from the clutter with the football, standing in the back of the end zone with a 22-yard touchdown grab — the knockout punch that gave the Bears an 18-point lead in their 31-3 victory.
What looked at first like a mistake and then like a magic trick to most of the 54,051 spectators in attendance was simply routine business to the magician.
“I can make any throw,” Williams said after the game, exuding exactly the kind of confidence that makes a play like that possible.
Patience and precision, though, were also needed with Williams sensing he had plenty of time, then hitting the bull’s-eye with a dart that whistled over both Delpit and Campbell.
“It’s just seeing and feeling space,” he said. “Seeing nobody was in the end zone back there with DJ, I just gave him a good ball.”
Moore’s perspective? He was a bit surprised Williams let the pass fly, particularly given how late into the progression that read was. Then again, he wasn’t. “Caleb can make a lot of throws other people can’t,” Moore said.
Moore was also a bit surprised that the ball made it through the traffic. Then again, he wasn’t.
“I didn’t take my eyes off it,” he said. “I was like, ‘He’s giving me a chance with this. I better come down with it.’ That’s what happened.”
Loveland was the nearest Bear to Moore when he came down with the catch.
“When I saw the ball go up, I was like, ‘I might go try to make a play on this,’” he said. “Then I was like, ‘I can’t make a play on it.’ Turned around and DJ made an amazing catch.
“Ain’t anything new. DJ has been making plays. Great ball from Caleb, giving him a chance. That was sweet.”
The brilliance of that touchdown was matched only by the significance of its timing. Williams’ throw and Moore’s grab came after five consecutive scoreless possessions by the offense and, more notably, on the first snap after D’Marco Jackson’s leaping interception set the Bears up with possession just outside the red zone.
The swell of momentum from that sequence — a takeaway and a touchdown in a span of 14 seconds — was undeniable.
“It felt like we took firm control of the game there at that point,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said.
So where should we start with the unpacking of a touchdown that was equal parts attention-grabbing and critical for the Bears as they stormed to their 10th victory? Was this an important moment in creating the long-awaited click between Williams and Moore, whose chemistry has been heavily scrutinized all season?
That concern reached new levels after Moore recorded only one catch for minus-4 yards in last week’s loss at Green Bay. For a player who has been consistently productive throughout his career, this season’s statistical dip has been a head-scratcher.
Johnson, who expressed his own surprise at Moore’s down day in Green Bay, has insisted that the receiver’s production slump hasn’t been a result of poor route running or lack of effort. Through that lens, Sunday’s big day didn’t quite qualify as an emergence.
“He’s been playing this way every week,” Johnson said. “It’s just we haven’t been able to get him the ball or get the ball in his hands. We were able to target him a few more times (today), and he came through with some big plays.”
Moore was asked whether Sunday’s big day felt needed.
“Did I need a game like that?” he said. “For what?”
Just to, ya know, quiet some of the outside chatter and concern.
“If you say so,” he said with a smile. “Will it shut y’all up? It ain’t going to shut y’all up. But it felt good. It’s always good to score at home. Especially twice.”
Still, what about the chutzpah Williams showed in even taking that shot as the Bears tried adding to a 14-3 lead?
Sixteen days earlier, during the Bears’ Black Friday victory in Philadelphia, Williams missed a similar opportunity on a backside “hero post” to receiver Olamide Zaccheaus. That one, for what it’s worth, felt like an easier play to make, with Zaccheaus wide open and far less congestion inside the Lincoln Financial Field end zone.
But Johnson didn’t fret about that miss, explaining a few days later that it’s not an oft-worked-on pass. “It’s one of those that’s rarely ever thrown,” Johnson said on Dec. 1.
“We always talk about if you’re a third- or fourth-string quarterback in the preseason and you want to be a hero, that’s when you throw that thing. Because it’s so rarely thrown.”
The Bears coach hadn’t backed off that sentiment Sunday, even after Williams became an alchemist with the concept.
“I would say 99 percent of quarterbacks, you tell them, ‘Don’t even waste your time looking back there and trying to make that throw,’” Johnson said. “There are usually bad things that happen.”
Williams’ response: Watch this.
And here came the most memorable throw of his 242-yard day.
Williams wasn’t alone with his sorcery on Sunday afternoon. During a game in which the league’s greediest defense pumped its season takeaway total up to an NFL-best 30, cornerback Jaylon Johnson made a ridiculous interception on a Shedeur Sanders deep ball in the third quarter, plucking the ball away from receiver Jerry Jeudy.
Not to be outdone, the NFC’s top ground attack compiled a 142-50 advantage in rushing yards. And D’Andre Swift’s second touchdown of his 98-yard rushing day came with impressive vision, agility and perseverance.
“I saw space and opportunity,” Swift said.
Seventeen yards later, Swift and the Bears had opened up a laugher.
Still, the Williams-to-Moore connection was the talk of the day with the duo hooking up four times for 69 yards, including a 17-yard TD late in the first quarter that had a lower degree of difficulty than their second score.
On that touchdown, Moore smoked Browns cornerback Myles Harden in man coverage on a crossing route. And Williams, after a play fake to running back Kyle Monangai, floated a perfect ball into Moore’s mitts.
Williams confessed that the same play short-circuited in practice at the end of the week with the kind of sloppiness that gives Johnson migraines.
“In those moments, it’s like, ‘Oh, Coach likes things to look a certain way.’ And it didn’t look that certain way,” Williams said. “It was high on my totem pole for calls (today). I’m happy he called it. And DJ did a great job.”
By day’s end, the Bears had everything they wanted. A response performance. A blowout of an inferior opponent. The 10th win of the season and, next weekend, a rematch with the Packers. Oh, and a big moment from Williams and Moore.
“Sometimes these things come in bunches,” Johnson said. “You’ll kind of have a dry spell. Then all of a sudden, (DJ) could come on hot here over the next three games and really take off. That’s the way it tends to happen, which would be a good thing for us.”
