Caleb Williams should have moved quicker, and Matt Eberflus should have been savvy enough to save him

DETROIT — Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams could see what coach Matt Eberflus couldn’t.

The game clock at Ford Field was ticking down Thursday with the Bears trailing by three. Williams had been sacked with 32 seconds left at the Bears’ 41 and started waving his hands to get his receivers back to the line of scrimmage quickly.

Williams called a play at the line, then changed receiver Rome Odunze’s route with 13 seconds left. The reason? He figured the Bears didn’t have enough time to throw a short completion and take a timeout, the way Eberflus had hoped.

With six seconds left, Odunze ran a deep route and Williams threw up a prayer. The clock expired before the ball hit the ground, and the Bears lost 23-20. They took their final timeout with them to the locker room.

Williams, who was sacked three times on the final drive, has the authority to call a timeout on his own but didn’t think it was his place Thursday.

‘‘In that situation, I’m living with the call,’’ Williams said, ‘‘and I’ll let the coaches and everybody make that decision.’’

Williams should have moved quicker after being sacked on second down, and Eberflus should have been savvy enough to save him when he didn’t.

Lions defensive end Za’Darius Smith rushed unblocked and sacked Williams for a loss of six on a play that was going to be a quarterback draw. After the receivers ran back to the line of scrimmage, Williams had the Bears set with 13 seconds left. Making changes meant the ball wasn’t snapped until the six-second mark.

‘‘Whenever I made my adjustment, at whatever point the clock was at, was when I realized we’d only have one play,’’ Williams said.

Thursday marked the second consecutive game in which Williams was left to scramble as a result of Eberflus’ game management. On Sunday against the Vikings, Williams checked into a short pass to receiver Keenan Allen on fourth-and-four as his teammates were shooing the kicker and punter, who had run onto the field, back to the sideline. The pass fell incomplete, just as the one Thursday.

‘‘I knew when we snapped the ball that the [clock] was going to run out, so I was trying to get to the end zone,’’ Odunze said. ‘‘We just didn’t get a great coverage for it.’’

It never should have gotten to that point.

‘‘It was tough,’’ said Allen, who had two touchdown catches. ‘‘I feel like we did enough as players to win the game.’’

Maybe not as coaches, however. The finish raised even deeper questions about whether Eberflus will be fired before the end of the season. Promoting offensive coordinator Thomas Brown to interim head coach seems like a nonstarter, however. The Bears likely don’t want to mess any further with Williams, who already has seen a coordinator fired this season and has improved the last three games under Brown.

Williams’ first half, however, portended one of the ugliest offensive games in recent Bears history. He was 5-for-15 for 34 yards before halftime. The Bears had two first downs — their fewest since Justin Fields’ first career start in Cleveland in 2021 — went three-and-out three times and turned the ball over on downs twice more. They trailed 16-0 at halftime.

Williams was worlds better in the second half, going 15-for-24 for 222 yards with three touchdowns and a 132.3 passer rating. He threw the first touchdown to Allen one play after he was hit by linebacker Jack Campbell on a scramble toward the right sideline. Williams’ left knee wound up being fine, he said, though he said Campbell’s hit was dirty.

‘‘I didn’t really appreciate the play,’’ he said. ‘‘He just kinda dove straight at my knee.’’

Williams broke Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray’s NFL rookie record of 212 consecutive passes without an interception and hasn’t thrown a pick since Week 6. He threw touchdown passes on three of the Bears’ first four possessions of the second half before they took the ball, down three, at their 1 with 3:31 left.

The drive started with an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty against Allen, who whipped the ball toward an official after a six-yard catch. After an incomplete pass to Odunze, the Bears used their first timeout — even though the clock had stopped — to set up third-and-seven. Williams threw a 25-yard pass to receiver DJ Moore for a first down, then took a sack before finding Moore for 14 yards and handing off to running back D’Andre Swift for 12.

At the two-minute warning, the Bears had first-and-10 at midfield. Williams took a sack and later scrambled for 13 yards. After an incomplete pass, Williams threw a 21-yard pass to Moore over the middle, only for tight end Cole Kmet to be called for setting an illegal pick. On fourth-and-14, the Bears got their own break when former teammate Kindle Vildor was called for pass interference on a heave to Moore.

From the Lions’ 25, Williams threw an incomplete pass but followed with a 12-yard completion to Allen that was nullified when guard Teven Jenkins was flagged for illegal hands to the face. Jenkins said after the game he didn’t want to comment on the flag because it might get him fined.

Instead of having the ball at the Lions’ 13, the Bears were back at the 35.

Then came the sack, the clock running out on the heave to Odunze and another horror-movie ending.

‘‘You can’t always make the right play,’’ Williams said. ‘‘You have to make a decision and go with it.’’