The Chicago Bears once again found themselves on the brink of a thrilling victory during “Sunday Night Football.” With only four seconds remaining on the clock and no timeouts left, they were poised at the 49ers’ 2-yard line, trailing 42-38 in what had been a riveting showdown between two teams with Super Bowl aspirations.

On this crucial play, quarterback Caleb Williams took his position in the shotgun formation. D’Andre Swift, his running back, moved to the left for a potential swing pass. However, the strategy was quickly thwarted by the keen coverage of rookie safety Malik Mustapha, compelling Williams to improvise and search for alternatives.

In a desperate attempt to salvage the play, Williams scrambled toward the left sideline, pressured to make a throw off his back foot just as the 49ers’ pass rush closed in. He aimed for his rookie receivers, Jahdae Walker and Luther Burden, but the pass fell short, marking the end of the game and igniting 49ers’ celebrations.

Reflecting on the missed opportunity, Bears coach Ben Johnson addressed the media, acknowledging, “We didn’t quite get aligned in the formation we wanted to. It’s on me. I didn’t get him the call fast enough, so he’s trying to piecemeal it together. I have got to do a better job on that.”

“We didn’t quite get aligned in the formation we wanted to. It’s on me,” Bears coach Ben Johnson told reporters postgame. “I didn’t get him the call fast enough, so he’s trying to piecemeal it together. I have got to do a better job on that.”

Williams had similar thoughts to those of his offensive guru head coach.

“We ended up getting lined up with not much time (on the play clock). We were slightly lined up wrong. I didn’t have enough time to be able to fix it,” Williams said postgame. “We just had to try to make something out of nothing in that situation. And then we had a shot. With all of that going on, time running down, us misaligning, things like that. We had a shot, and [I’ve] just gotta give my guys a shot in that situation.”

Receiver DJ Moore did wind up running free on the opposite side of the field, but Williams was too busy dealing with the pass rush and was looking closer to his side of the field by the time his receiver was open and calling for the ball.

The play clock before the final snap had just hit zero and Chicago could have been called for a delay of game penalty, something 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was acutely aware of and is why he did not call a timeout.

“I thought about it,” Shanahan said when asked whether he considered calling a timeout. “We wanted to see the look, and then they just went fast, so we let it ride.”

It surely brings back memories of the 2014 Super Bowl, when the Seahawks were out of timeouts but looking to run the clock down as they hoped to score a touchdown and leave the Patriots with no time left.

Coach Bill Belichick saw chaos on the Seattle sideline and elected not to call a timeout, which eventually resulted in a Russell Wilson pass that was intercepted at the goal line by Malcolm Butler to seal a New England Super Bowl win.

The play before the game-sealing incomplete pass, the Bears dove deep into the playbook on second down from the 13 with 21 seconds remaining when they called a hook-and-ladder with Colston Loveland lateraling it back to Swift.

That play was stopped at the 2-yard line. The Bears then spiked the ball with four seconds left to set up the final down.

The Bears loss comes after the team clinched the NFC North title with the Packers loss on Saturday. However it did end their hopes of earning the top seed in the conference.

That will now be decided on Saturday night in Week 18 with the winner of the 49ers and Seahawks game earning a bye and home-field advantage.