Bears quarterback Caleb Williams comforted himself after his game-sealing interception Sunday by paraphrasing a Michael Jordan Nike commercial that’s older than he is.
“It kind of goes to the MJ quote where he missed how[ever] many game-winners,” he said Wednesday. “You’re going to take those shots. That’s the type of mindset I have — that I’ll take those shots and I’ll roll with the punches if I do miss. That’s what happened. You move on from it.
“And when that moment comes up again, I think nine times out of 10 that I’ll hit. That’s my mentality. That’s how I feel about it.”
Williams was referencing a 1997 Nike ad in which the Bulls’ six-time NBA champion addressed his own failures.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career,” Jordan said in a voiceover while footage showed him walking from his car to the players’ entrance. “I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot — and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
“And that is why I succeed.”
Williams failed on the Bears’ final pass in their 28-21 loss at Lambeau Field. On fourth-and-one from the Packers’ 14-yard line with 27 seconds to play, he threw late and short to tight end Cole Kmet. Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon leaped and intercepted the pass to seal the win.
“I feel like the ball should be in my hand,” said Williams, who also made a quick reference to late Lakers great Kobe Bryant’s mentality. “That’s how I felt as a kid, that’s how I still feel today, that’s how I felt on Sunday in that moment. Feel great.”
The interception brought together two of the biggest storylines surrounding the Bears’ second-year quarterback this season — his stellar performances at the end of games and his baffling issues with accuracy.
On Wednesday, Williams did what he has done all season while bemoaning passes he thinks he should complete — he shook his head and winced with a half-smile on his face.
He’s not used to having accuracy issues. The Bears have focused on his footwork to try to improve his completion percentage, but Williams admitted there are times when the ball just leaves his hand the wrong way.
Williams completed at least 60% of his passes in 12 of his first 20 career games — and has done it only once in his 10 since.
“I’m doing the right things, and then the last bit of it, something’s off,” he said. “And it’s either a miss or an incompletion, or something just not on the same page. That’s the area that I really want to get on the same page with the guys. And then from my side of it, it is doing everything right — and then you miss.”
He wants to fix that during the season’s final four games, followed by, the Bears hope, a postseason run. Williams also wants to start faster. The Bears have averaged 3.5 points per game in the first quarter of their last four games after averaging 6.6 in their first nine.
“It’s just sharp, sharp, sharp focus and sharpening my focus even more,” he said. “Just making sure [I’m] starting fast and having a sharp focus from the beginning.”
Williams thinks of fast starts in a basketball context, too.
“Sometimes you’re just seeing the first basket go in,” he said. “Getting your first completion and just kind of seeing the pass being caught. Whatever pass it is — whether it’s a deep shot, intermediate, short, whatever — just finding that first completion and getting it into your receivers’ hands or the tight ends … and letting them go to work.”
The stakes in the last month of the season are the highest they’ve been inside Halas Hall since 2018. The Bears believe that they need to win at least two of their last four games — starting Sunday against the three-win Browns — to make the playoffs.
“We have goals,” coach Ben Johnson said. “And we know what’s out in front of us.”
It will be Williams’ first playoff run since his Heisman Trophy year in 2022, when USC won 11 of its first 12 games to earn the No. 4 national ranking at the end of the regular season. They lost in the Pac-12 championship game to Utah after Williams pulled his hamstring in the first quarter.
“Whether it’s college or pro, you do learn things from those types of years,” he said. “Just understanding that each week is its own week, understanding that you go 1-0 in the week that you’re focused on, the team that you’re focused on. It propels you in a very positive way to put you in position to be exactly where you want to at the end of the year.”
The Bears are right where they want to be, even as Williams still feels the sting of the pass he left just short of Kmet’s grasp.
“Just gotta give Cole a better ball in that moment,” he said. “But other than that, roll with the punches if it doesn’t roll your way.”
The 2018 team was actually better, though that was mostly because Nagy was handed a world-class defense. While the current team has some flaws, it’s long-term outlook is brighter.
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