After trailing the Packers 21-3 at halftime last week, Williams led the Bears to his seventh fourth-quarter comeback of the season in the Wild Card round, tied for third-most, including playoff games, by a quarterback since 1950, trailing only Kirk Cousins (2022) and Matthew Stafford (2016) with eight.
The Bears’ 25 fourth-quarter points against the Packers were the third-most in playoff history, as Williams threw for 184 yards and two TDs in the final 15 minutes — the most yards in the final quarter of a playoff game since Tom Brady’s 196 against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Williams said he was built for these conditions.
“I’m calm in those moments,” Williams said. “I feel like my conditioning is the best in those moments. I feel like I’m the best in those moments because of what I’ve prepared myself to be in those moments. For myself, it’s just next play, next play, next play, and then when you have to go make a play, it’s life or death in those moments.”
During training camp, Johnson tried to prepare his team for these life-and-death situations. He asked two Bears players — guard Joe Thuney and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett — to talk to the team about their experiences in Super Bowl LI, when the Patriots erased a 28-3 deficit to win the championship. Thuney was the winner and Jarrett was not.
Williams also sat next to Brady, the architect of that comeback, while talking about that particular game to the league’s first-year players at the 2024 NFL Draft. Brady’s message in a nutshell: What could have been the worst game of his career became his best because he and the Patriots didn’t run away from adversity. They thrived amidst.
Williams echoed Brady’s message when asked how he handles the sticky spots, driven by a fear of failure but also by a shot at a big play.
“It’s about the next play,” Williams said. “It’s about the mindset when we’re in the moment. It’s honestly about not wanting to go out there and get kicked. Have a certain mindset, have a certain fight about yourself and it can either be one of your worst moments or one of your greatest moments.”