Bears' Caleb Williams blames himself for not throwing better pass on his crucial INT against Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Just when it appeared Caleb Williams was on the verge of completing yet another fourth-quarter comeback, he made a regrettable pass on Sunday that knocked the Chicago Bears out of the NFC North lead.

The Bears trailed 28-21 and faced fourth-and-1 from Green Bay’s 14-yard line when Williams faked a handoff and rolled to his left. Rather than checking down or trying to run for the first down, Williams threw into the end zone.

Bears tight end Cole Kmet had gotten behind cornerback Keisean Nixon, but Williams’ pass was underthrown. Nixon made a leaping grab with 22 seconds left, and the Bears' five-game winning streak ended as they fell a half-game behind the Packers in the division.

“In those moments, it’s you know, a got-to-have-it-moment,” said Williams, who went 19 of 35 for 186 yards with two touchdowns. “And they had a guy trailing me, so, I didn’t feel like I could go get it myself (by running). I’ve just got to give Cole a better shot at it. I think next time, just extend him a little bit more and kind of lead him. But in those moments, you want to put the ball in play and trust your guy or try to have your guy go make a play, and (I’ve) just got to give him a better ball.”

Williams had faked a handoff to D’Andre Swift, who then appeared to be open just beyond the first-down marker.

Chicago coach Ben Johnson said the Bears ran a similar play in their previous game, a win at Philadelphia, and it resulted in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Kmet.

“So we’ve got multiple options on that play,” Johnson said. “Caleb felt like Cole was open, and we didn’t hit it. That’s kind of my extent from the sideline. I got to go back and I got to look at it.”

Williams had made a habit of delivering down the stretch during Chicago’s surge as the Bears attempt to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

He has orchestrated five fourth-quarter comebacks this season to match Denver’s Bo Nix for the most by any quarterback. Williams helped the Bears rally from a 14-3 halftime deficit to tie Sunday’s game on a 1-yard touchdown pass to Colston Loveland with eight minutes left.

After Green Bay regained the lead, Williams got Chicago into scoring position by completing a 27-yard pass to Luther Burden and a 24-yarder to Devin Duvernay.

The Bears faced third-and-1 from Green Bay’s 14 when Kyle Monangai was stopped for no gain by Kingsley Enagbare. That set up the fourth-down play that ended Chicago’s hopes.

“We had about two or three guys in front of, either stacking Swift or right there with Swift,” Williams said. “I rolled out and saw Cole and I tried to give him a big-boy ball, try and let him go up for it because I ended up seeing 25 (Nixon) start to sprint. So, I tried to slow them up and kind of give him a chance.”

Williams led scoring drives on each of Chicago’s first three second-half possessions, but he went 6 of 14 for 32 yards in the first half.

The Bears get another shot at Green Bay when they host the Packers on Dec. 20.

“I need to start faster,” Williams said. “We need to start faster, and I think that will do us well as a team and as an offense, especially. That’s something that they did better than us today, I would say, and they made plays at the end of the day.”

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Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon (25) celebrates after an interception against Chicago Bears tight end Cole Kmet (85) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) passes the ball against Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon, second from left, during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Matt Ludtke)

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) looks to pass the ball against the Green Bay Packers during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) embraces Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) after an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams looks to pass against the Green Bay Packers during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

Voters in two major Texas counties were turned away at polling locations and directed to different precincts Tuesday, after a recent change in how the primary is conducted created confusion and frustration.

In Dallas County, a judge ordered polls to remain open for two hours past the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time, citing “voter confusion so severe” that it caused the website of the county election office to crash. The judge was acting on a petition filed by the local Democratic Party.

In Dallas and Williamson counties, voters had been allowed to cast their ballot anywhere in their county for years. But for this primary, the local Republican parties opted against countywide voting. State law says both major parties have to agree to the countywide system for it to be in effect.

That meant that on Tuesday all voters in the two counties could cast ballots only at their assigned precinct.

The campaigns of the two Democrats running in the party primary for U.S. Senate denounced the effect of the change on voters and called for the poll hours to be extended.

“Both Dallas and Williamson county voters have grown accustomed to countywide voting, including on election day,” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett 's campaign said. “This effort to suppress the vote, to confuse and inconvenience voters, is having the intended effect as people are being turned away from the polls.”

The campaign of James Talarico, a state lawmaker, said it was “deeply concerned” about the reports of voters showing up at polling locations and being sent elsewhere.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that voting locations also might be specific to someone’s party affiliation, said Nic Solorzano, a spokesperson for the Dallas County Elections Department.

“We’re seeing a lot of people that are going to their vote centers that they usually go to ... and not realizing they can’t do that anymore. They have to go to their precinct-based location,” he said.

It was not immediately clear whether the judge’s ruling applied to all voting precincts or just the ones for Democrats.

Texas was one of three states kicking off the 2026 midterm elections Tuesday, along with North Carolina and Arkansas. Voting otherwise went fairly smoothly, except for a problem with electronic poll books in one rural North Carolina county that prompted the state elections board to delay the release of statewide results by an hour.

Tomas Sanchez, a student at Dallas College, was among those who showed up at a voting location on campus to cast his ballot in Texas' Democratic primary. But he was under a “mistaken impression” and told that he needed to vote at his assigned precinct, a location about 6 miles (about 10 kilometers) away and closer to his neighborhood.

“This is something that we were really concerned about, honestly,” Solorzano said. He added that after nearly seven years of voters being able to cast their ballots anywhere in the county, “then we kind of had to retool our entire operation to go back to precinct-based voting for Election Day.”

The county elections department has been putting up signs, running ads and sending text messages and mailers to make people aware of the change. On Election Day former poll workers were stationed outside voting locations with tablets to help people find the correct place to cast their ballot.

While Solorzano said his department was not keeping track of how many people were been turned away, local Democrats said the number was significant.

Brenda Allen, executive director of the Dallas Democratic Party, said her offices were swamped by hundreds of calls from voters of both parties trying to find their precincts. She noted that congressional districts in the county also were remapped in Texas’ mid-decade redistricting and that new precinct lines were only finalized in December, leaving little time to inform voters.

“Lots of reports of people being turned away, hundreds of people unable to vote. Both parties are affected by this,” Allen said. “It’s not great.”

In Williamson County, which includes suburbs north of Austin, the state capital, the local Democratic Party headquarters was slammed by calls, executive director Madison Dickinson said.

“We’re having significant problems with the precinct-level voting,” she said, adding that, like in Dallas, even Republicans were confused by the change and were calling the Democratic Party for help.

Republicans were less vocal about the changes online, although the Dallas County Republican Party posted a link showing voters where to find their assigned polling places. The Williamson County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.

Associated Press writer John Hanna contributed.

Primary voter Allie Davis carries her seven-week-old son Declan as a Dallas County Election Navigator checks her ID before entering a voting center in Dallas, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)