The record-setting efficiency just found the perfect highlight for Caleb Williams. In the middle of the Bears’ 31-3 dismantling of the Browns, the rookie not only delivered two touchdown strikes to DJ Moore, but he also crossed 1,000 career pass attempts while sitting on just 12 interceptions, setting the NFL mark for the fewest picks in a quarterback’s first 1,000 throws.
It was the kind of afternoon that blended numbers and swagger, and it came with Chicago tightening its grip on the NFC playoff picture.
The defining moment was that second touchdown to Moore, the one analytics said had no business being completed. One snap after a Bears interception, Williams rolled right out of the shotgun, drifted toward the Browns sideline and, instead of throwing the ball away, whipped it back across his body to the back of the end zone.
The pass traveled 22 yards in the air and, per Next Gen Stats, had just a 16.1 percent chance of being completed, the most improbable Bears completion of the past five seasons, via ESPN.
Somehow, the ball dropped over one defender and past another, finding Moore perfectly bracketed between the two. The wideout just shook his head at what his quarterback attempted.
“He makes a lot of throws that other people can’t,” Moore told ESPN, adding that Williams basically told him on the sideline he was just going to give him a chance on that look.
Tight end Cole Kmet, who said he was the primary read on the play, could only laugh as he called it the kind of “ill-advised throw” coaches warn about, then immediately pointed to it as proof of why Williams went No. 1 overall.
Asked afterward if he viewed it that way, Williams didn’t flinch: he said he didn’t, because he believes he can “make any throw.”
Moore’s day answered some questions of his own. After being held to minus-4 yards in the loss to the Packers, he responded with two touchdowns and a reminder that he is still a true WR1 even with Rome Odunze sidelined by a foot issue.
In Ben Johnson’s first season, the Bears have nearly doubled last year’s win total, and nights like this, a quarterback breaking interception records while ripping throws that almost no one else tries, are why they suddenly look built to last.
