Through the Quarterback's Eyes: Caleb Williams

Breaking Down Williams' Game-Winning Touchdown Run vs. the Giants

The Bears pulled out a victory against the Bengals in the closing seconds of Week 9. One week later against the Giants, they trailed 20-10 midway through the 4th quarter before storming back to steal another win.

Caleb Williams was tremendous on the Bears’ final two drives against New York. He completed 5 of 8 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown, and used his legs to pick up 53 more yards as well as the game-winning score.

That game-winner was set up brilliantly by Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson.

Trailing 20-17 with 1:54 remaining, Chicago faced a 2nd-and-8 from the Giants’ 17-yard line. They were already well into field goal range.

The Giants had just used their first timeout because they wanted to ensure there was time left on the clock when they got the ball back. They were likely expecting the Bears to run the ball again to force them to use another timeout.

Considering Chicago also entered Week 10 as the #2 ranked rushing offense in the NFL and their running backs had carried the ball 20 times for over 5 yards per clip to that point in the game, there was a high probability that this would be a run play.

This is important for understanding how this play unfolded.

The Bears came out in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE’s) and a 3x1 formation with 2 tight ends to one side:

Then, they shifted tight end Cole Kmet from one side of the formation to the other. Safety Tyler Nubin followed, an indicator of man coverage (not uncommon in the red zone):

Then, right before the snap, they used escort motion across the formation with tight end Durham Smythe. This is a type of motion used specifically to give the offense a numbers advantage in the run game. That’s because the ball is snapped before the motion man crosses the center, but he ends up on the opposite side of the formation once the blocking commences:

The Bears now had two tight ends to the right side and had used a motion indicating a run in that direction. That all helped sell the run to the Giants Defense.

You can see its effect on edge rusher Brian Burns. Watch him try to get down the line at the snap to chase the ball carrier from behind: