Bears most to blame for brutal NFC Divisional Round loss to Rams

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Bears most to blame for brutal NFC Divisional Round loss to Rams

Ben Strauss, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Mon, Jan 19, 2026 ·

5 min read

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The Chicago Bears ended their magical 2025 season on Sunday night in Soldier Field. Chicago lost an overtime thriller with Los Angeles , falling 20-17 in head coach Ben Johnson 's first playoff loss with the Bears. Now the Rams will advance to the NFC Championship and the Bears will be left thinking about what could have been.

Give the Bears credit for going toe to toe with the Rams for more than 60 minutes. Caleb Williams deserves credit for getting the team to overtime. He completed a miraculous touchdown pass to Cole Kmet in the final seconds of regulation.

Unfortunately, Chicago still fell short in overtime .

"Our guys are feeling it right now," Johnson said after the game, per the Associated Press. "They all believed, man. They all believed that we could find a way to win each and every week. And so it's disappointing like that. I'm proud of the group. It's a special group."

So what went wrong for the Bears on Sunday? And who is most to blame for blowing the team's shot at making the NFC Championship?

Below we will explore the Bears who are most to blame for the team's crushing Divisional Round loss to the Rams.

Bears lived and died by Caleb Williams ' wild plays

Williams can be a stressful quarterback to watch because of his chaotic playing style. Both the highs and lows were on full display last night.

Don't get me wrong, Williams did make some incredible plays. His fadeaway jumper to Kmet is the most obvious example. But Williams also made several other key plays to keep the Bears in the game.

However, the second-year quarterback also made some key mistakes that held the Bears back.

Williams ended the game 23-of-42 for 257 passing yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. Those turnovers ended up making the difference in the outcome of this game.

The worst of the bunch was Caleb's overtime interception that took away Chicago's chance to kick a game-winning field goal.

Ultimately, Williams gave a very measured response to his mistake-riddled performance after the game.

"In these moments you feel that you let your team down, you feel this and that," Williams said. "It's a good lesson learned for us, first time being in this situation for me and for us as a team. I'm excited for what's to come, but obviously going to go back and watch this and see how I can be better."

It is good to see that Williams does look like the answer at quarterback for the Bears. But that doesn't remove the frustration of the Bears blowing yesterday's huge playoff game.

Bears pass catchers had a few key drops, other mistakes against the Rams

Chicago's pass catchers could have done more to help Williams out throughout the game.

Some of their drops may not appear like that on the stat sheet. But in the NFL, especially during the playoffs, receivers need to come down with the ball if it hits them in the hands.

Perhaps the best example of this was Rome Odunze 's drop on the opening drive. Odunze could have scored a touchdown if he was able to hang on to Williams' pass, which in fairness was slightly behind.

Meanwhile, rookie tight end Colston Loveland had some frustrating plays where he should have come down with the ball. Some of his targets, including a diving catch attempt on the sideline, would have been miraculous if caught. But Bears fans should be forgiven for expecting their first-round pick to make big plays during the playoffs. Especially after he became Williams' favorite target late in the season.

Finally, there's DJ Moore . The veteran receiver looked confused on his route during the overtime play where Williams threw an interception.

The combination of all of these errors made life a lot more difficult for the Bears.

Ben Johnson left points on the table, could have called better plays

Surprisingly, head coach Ben Johnson deserves a prominent spot on this list.

Johnson left points on the table multiple times on Sunday, opting to go for it on fourth down six times. In my opinion, two of those plays should have been field goal attempts.

I'm looking specifically at Chicago's opening drive of the game and their fourth offensive possession. Gaining just three points would have made a huge difference in this game. Unfortunately, Johnson's aggression cost him in the playoffs just like it has with the Lions in previous seasons.

I was also surprised the Bears did not attempt a two-point conversion after Cole Kmet 's incredible touchdown catch with 18 seconds left in regulation.

Johnson explained his thought process on that decision after the game.

"Thought about it. Probably what played a little bit of a factor was our goal-to-go situations hadn't gone very clean," Johnson said in his postgame press conference. "Our inside the five plan hadn't worked out quite like we had hoped. I just felt better about taking our chances there in overtime."

In essence, the Bears got all of the downsides of Johnson's aggression on Sunday. And when they could have used that aggression most, Johnson held off.

Finally, where were the trick plays?!

Perhaps the snowy weather made some of Johnson's trickiest concepts hard to pull off. But it was a shame that he didn't empty the playbook in Chicago's most important game in over a decade.

Johnson has a lot he can learn from this crushing playoff defeat. There's no doubt it will fuel him, and the Bears, to get back to the playoffs in 2026.

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