Caleb Williams deserves blame for ending to Week 13 loss against the Detroit Lions

Matt Eberflus deserves to be fired, and he likely will be fired, the question is whether the Chicago Bears will do it this week, this season, or at the end of the year. So, while that makes it easy to pile on him for his role at the end of the Detroit Lions game, it is causing rookie quarterback Caleb Williams to avoid a lot of the blame. While Eberfus certainly deserves his share, even Williams has admitted that he deserves a good portion, and likely more than fans are giving him. 

Check out what Williams had to say post-game, specifically his first answer. 

Williams seems to think that the team did not have any timeouts. He notes that he called one earlier and said “I couldn’t take timeouts” because he took one earlier. That makes is seem as though he was operating under the impression that he already called their last time out earlier in the game. 

So, when Williams got a call to throw a pass to the middle of the field, he admits he changed the play. He did that for around 18 seconds. Had he accepted the play call, and thrown a quick pass to the middle of the field, the Bears would have got into field goal range, they would have had plenty of time, they would have been able to call the final time out and they would have had a field goal to tie the game. None of that is on Eberflus. 

You can argue that Eberflus should have made it clear to Williams how many timeouts they have. Still, Williams had been running a two-minute warning and it should be assumed that he has a clue as to how many time-outs the team has. 

Beyond that, when the team called a pass to the middle of the field, he had to assume the coaches knew the play was called because they had a timeout. He thought the coaches were wrong and changed the play, only to find out that they did have a timeout. 

More than that, Williams did not play with an urgency on that last play., You can see his linemen, the coaches on the sideline, and everyone trying to get him to hurry up. The team was set with plenty of time to run the play, but Williams and Williams alone decided to change the play. 

One of the most important traits for a quarterback is awareness. If Williams needs the coaches to hold his hand, tell him how many timeouts they have, and tell him what to do in every situation, he has bigger issues. 

Williams decided to change the play when they had plenty of time to run it. Williams decided they did not have any times out when they did. Williams was not playing fast enough to get the ball snapped in time. 

Fans can and will blame the easy target, and Eberflus has done enough over the last few years to deserve it. However, the end-of-game debacle should fall on Williams.