QB Caleb Williams throws three touchdowns in the second half, but the Bears miss the final drive

Caleb Williams had already thrown three touchdowns against the NFC’s best team in the second half when he was presented with another challenge – the ball at his own 1-yard line with 3:31 to play and the Bears trailing by a field goal behind the Lions.

That’s how the score would remain, as Williams was hampered by his own team’s errors and the Bears lost 23-20 to the Lions in front of 64,275 fans at Ford Field.

Williams threw three touchdowns in the second half and went 20-for-39 for 256 yards and a 97.8 passer rating on the day.

The Bears finally got within field goal range on the final drive before penalties forced them back to midfield.

On fourth-and-14 at the Bears’ 46 with 56 seconds to play, Williams was flushed to right with no receiver on the right side of the field. He threw a pass to DJ Moore anyway, and former Bears cornerback Kindle Vildor was cited for pass interference despite having minimal contact with Moore.

This happened one play after the Bears converted a fourth-and-4 on a cross route to Moore, only for tight end Cole Kmet to be warned for putting a pick on Moore’s defender, putting him on offense had.

Two plays after the pass interference call on Vildor, guard Teven Jenkins was called for illegal hands in the face on a 13-yard pass to Keenan Allen that would have given the Bears the ball at the 12th. Instead, the Bears had the ball at their 35. Za’Darius Smith sacked Williams on the next play as he ran toward the quarterback unblocked.

Eberflus, not wanting to call a timeout, then had the Bears play on third-and-26 in hopes of getting back into field goal range. Williams threw a deep throw to Rome Odunze and the clock hit zero before the ball fell incomplete.

The Bears were embarrassed in the first half and trailed 16-0 at halftime. They had two first downs in the first half, the first time since Justin Fields’ unfortunate first career start in Cleveland in 2021. The Bears were 0-for-5 on third downs and ran 19 plays with an average of 2.8 yards per game .

The Lions had 125 rushing yards and 111 more passing yards in the first half.

Williams was 5-for-15 for 34 yards rushing in the first half but was better in the second half. On his first drive, Williams crawled straight to the sideline and tried to stop to split the field. He was hit in the left knee by linebacker Jack Campbell and was in obvious pain.

William’s father Carl later tweeted a post on X in which he called the blow to his son’s knee dirty.

After he lay on the sideline following the 9-yard gain, his teammates helped him and rejoined the group. On the next play, he found receiver Keenan Allen on the seam, who caught the pass at the 8, turned and fell into the end zone for a 31-yard touchdown.

Williams’ left knee was so uncomfortable after he sat on the Bears’ bench that he was eventually sent to the injury tent on the sideline. He got away quickly and was on the field for the team’s next drive.

The Bears marched 70 yards for another touchdown on the next drive – again to Allen, this time for nine yards. Trailing by 10 with 13:40 to play, the Bears went for two. Williams threw an incomplete pass to Cole Kmet, who was covered. Williams threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Moore with 5:42 to play.

The Bears had a chance to tie or win at the end, but mismanagement of time was their undoing.

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Eberflus entered Thursday’s game against the Lions with a record of 14-31 and many missteps on his record in three seasons.

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