Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams share what happened on Bears’ final play vs. 49ers

The Bears were 13 yards away from taking a late and likely decisive lead over the San Francisco 49ers. Head coach Ben Johnson felt good calling for hook and lateral with no timeouts and 21 seconds remaining, something he often used as Detroit offensive coordinator but hadn’t yet used in Chicago.

The play had gone well in practice, and Johnson thought the Bears could win a game with it. Caleb Williams fired a perfect pass to Colston Loveland, who lateraled to a streaking D’Andre Swift.

The 49ers were in the right coverage to defend it, and kept Swift out of the end zone. There were no timeouts, so the offense got set and Williams clocked it with four seconds left.

There was time for one more play to go win it. The Bears had excelled in such situations before, with a stinging failure versus Gren Bay back in Week 14.

What came next was not a marvel of execution. Johnson was admittedly late getting the play call in. The Bears then lined up in the wrong formation, without time on the play clock to get it fixed.

Williams had to made the most of the situation. The 49ers brought two but one came free flushing him from the pocket as other 49ers descended. He had no choice but to let it go, and it hit the turf before reaching intended target Jahdae Walker. Time had expired. The 49ers won 42-38.

After watching the game tape, didn’t find fault with Williams in that moment.

“I think there was a little bit more chaos than which you would like in a situation like that,” Johnson said in a Monday press conference. “I think Caleb did what he could to make chicken salad out of it.”

[WATCH: Ben Johnson breaks down the final play of Bears-49ers]

Even so, Williams believes he should’ve done better in that instance.

“We just had to try and make something out of nothing in that situation,” Williams said on Sunday night. “We had a shot with all of that going on, with time running down, us misaligned, and things like that. We had a shot, and I just have to give my guys a shot in that situation. I haven’t obviously gone back and watched it yet, but I think I ended up dirting the ball and didn’t get my legs into it. I just need to put the ball in the end zone in that moment, even if it’s a pick or incomplete at that point. But I can’t dirt the ball.”

[READ: Five Bears whose stock went up or down in NFL Week 17 loss to 49ers]

That left the Bears bothered by the result. There were no silver linings to be found in taking the 49ers to the wire. And the game didn’t come down to that one play, even with so much emphasis on its finality.

[READ: Bears report card: Team grades in NFL Week 17 loss to 49ers]

“We really needed to line up in the right formation,” Johnson said, “and get the execution of it down to have a chance, in my opinion.”

The Bears are typically clutch in those situations and can be effective even when a situation breaks down. That didn’t happen at Levi’s Stadium on this instance.

“Confidence is always going to be there with how we work,” Swift said. “We just came up short today, and it never comes down to one play. We made mistakes offensively throughout the game that kind of put us in that position. We knew we were going to be in a shootout, we just have to score more points than they do.”

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