Ben Johnson reveals how a missed deadline doomed the Bears' last-second game-winning play against the 49ers.
Fans of the Chicago Bears found themselves in a similar situation to Week 14 on Sunday night.
In Week 14, the Bears were down 28-21 to the Green Bay Packers and got in position to tie the game with under 30 seconds to go. Williams threw an interception on 4th down and ended the game.
This time, the Bears were down by four and a touchdown would have won it against the San Francisco 49ers. Chicago got to the San Francisco two-yard line and had to draw up one last play with four seconds left.
Caleb Williams had to evade the 49ers' pass rush right away, but escaped. He was pressured again once he got outside the pocket and looked for Jahdae Walker in the end zone, but the pass bounced off the turf.
At the post-game presser, head coach Ben Johnson was asked about how the last play call was supposed to go. He shouldered the blame and said he should've gotten the play call in faster; otherwise, the team might have been able to get aligned correctly.
"Yeah, we didn't quite get aligned in the formation we wanted to," Johnson said. "It's on me. I didn't get the call in fast enough, so he's trying to piecemeal it together. I gotta do a better job on that."
The theme throughout this game was the lack of defense. Both teams couldn't seem to get the other's offense off the field. The total number of punts in the game was five, which gives you an idea of how little each defense stopped the opposing offense.
For the 49ers, it was the first time that their offense had punted the ball away since Nov. 30 against the Cleveland Browns.
The 42-38 loss means that the Bears are out of the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The 49ers have a chance to take it from the Seattle Seahawks with a win in their final game of the regular season.
The Bears will either have the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the playoffs, depending on what happens in Week 18. Chicago closes the regular season out with the Detroit Lions.
In the first meeting, the Lions dismantled the Bears by a score of 52-21 in Johnson's return to Detroit as Chicago's head coach. Much has changed since then, as the Lions were eliminated with the 23-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Bears face the Lions next Sunday at 3:25 p.m. CT on Fox.