Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Caleb Williams shares in-depth breakdown of epic TD throw against Rams

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris listened to Bears quarterback Caleb Williams break down his epic touchdown pass against the Rams late in regulation in Chicago's loss in the NFL divisional round.

Here we go. Fourth and four. It's a blitz. Joseph. The man in motion. Williams, drifting. Sprinting for space. And the crowd goes wild. That was fun to hear at Soldier Field.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104. The score, that courtesy of Mike Tariko, who liked being here too with Chris Collinsworth on NBC. They did. Did you like that? He told us he loved Chicago. Like the way he talks about Chicago and calling games here is it's amazing. But you know what?

That throw was unbelievable. And I'm sorry. But every time I watch it, because like how many times did you watch it in a 24-hour period? Would you guess? Would you guess? Oh, man. Oh, geez. Probably close to 100.

Like, yeah, I mean, I, I slow-mo a lot of stuff too. But no, more than 15, I guess. I don't even know off the top of my head. Because the play itself lasted, like, it lasted longer than most. place because of how far he ran back. It was other things too, like the ISO of Komet, swinging the bat at Stacey Dales, you know, ran right to her.

I think she was filming with her phone. That was just perfect. Yeah, that was on her phone. I think for me, every time I see it, though, I almost don't expect it to be a completed pass because of the nature of the start of the play. You know what I think? Being a sports old head, if you will,

I sit in the Kevin Durant camp. You know, I'm Team Stripes, not Team Stars. Not the Kevin Durant. Not that we ran out of gas camp. But I'm like, man, you could do that now. But like years later, you might be like, I can't believe we really did that. Like, who, that was pretty crazy. But yeah, just the excitement and listening to the crowd again.

That's a good audio mix, Ray and Tyler, of just how good the crowd was and how it popped at Soldier Field. And to say the phrase, Soldier Field crowd pop is not, is not. something that I think I've said in my life. Many Bears fans have not said that in their lifetime. Like, like WW Survivor Series crowd pop when CM Punk returned, that's something I've said. But a Soldier Field crowd pop for the career? We're in a different era, baby. What about a United Center Bulls crowd pop?

Would those happen? Like when I was there for the giddy half-court shot? Oh, well, you make a half-course shot. But no, you know what? The United Center crowd pop actually happens pretty frequent. because of how they know a three will like tear the roof off a place or a dunk or something along those lines. I feel like that happens pretty often. The United Center crowd is into it. Is that more about crowd timing then and being aware of the moment that you're living in?

But as a group, because I haven't you been there at times where when you're in the arena, you're like, oh, if he hits this three, this place is going to go bananas. And then it does. That happens. I guess that didn't happen when I went to the season opener two seasons ago. Oh, when you and I were sitting there watching and then you're like, oh, if you're like Oklahoma City's up by 19 and I'm like wait how did that happen so fast? Yeah. We've been watching the game. There was no crowd pop that day.

But the point is Soldier Field crowd. And that that play, Caleb Williams talked about it. It's hard to talk about it after a loss with any sort of appreciation because it frustrated. Your season's over. It could have been so close to extending. You could have lived to see another day. But unfortunately, not the case. So I appreciate Caleb Williams talking about this on the,

Rush podcast with Max Crosby, that whole process is he, is he made the impossible possible. Ben has a clip from watching from behind Ben and Ben, he's watching me. And he goes, he like, tilts his head back. And I already know his mind is like, what the fuck is he doing? You know, like don't go, don't run away. It's fourth down. Like, obviously, don't run away from yeah, where we need to go. Where we need to go. Yeah, it's the biggest play, biggest moment, you know, And so in that moment, it's, I was actually about to escape. So I had a tight, tight edge on both sides, short edge on both sides. And I can't, I can't get up in the pocket.

It didn't feel like I could get up in the pocket. And so I'm like, all right, I'm about to just, you know, gain a little depth, trying to wait for somebody to pop open. And then I'm like, they're not popping open. Safety, it was cover for, safety, safety bid on the, on the end route we had. And the other route we had got covered up also. And so I'm like, okay, I'm backing up, backing up. And I'm like, do you realize how far you're backing up in the moment?

No, no, I was just, I was like, here we go. It's time to go and make a play. It was a madden play. Yeah, and so I was back. You run 30 yards backwards and you're like, why, yeah, what am I doing? So I was backing up, backing up. And I'm like, I got to get out of here. And so I'm like, okay, I'm not to just spin out and just, and I'm out to just loop back.

So that's why I actually start looping back and trying to get around the edge. And I'm like, oh, he has a great angle on me. Can't do that. And so I feel his angle and I'm like, okay, now at this point, I'm going to just create space for myself so I can get the ball down the field. And so that's what happened. So I start bending and then I bend back to try and straighten both of them up. So it creates more time for me.

Yep. And then I straighten up and I turn around and I see everybody. I can see everybody at this one. You're all watching you. I'm 50 yards back. I can see everybody. The best view in the house. I get the best view in the house.

I can see absolutely everybody in my, you know, whatever. And so everybody's over here. And there's a six foot six tight end, two 60 or whatever. And then there's a shorter, a shorter cornerback. And I'm like, 14 and 85. That was, you know, Cole. So I saw everything. And I'm like, my only thought was put this ball in the back of the end zone.

Yeah. And I was like, that's our best shot to go and either tie the game or go win the game after. And so that's what I did. I was like, here we go. And I got my, I got enough, you know, of my feet playing the ground and just, and put in the back and end zone and it's one of those like it's like I mean for instance

it's like throwing a go ball like you know he's even with him like give him the best ball that you can you know high in front of them and let him go make a play and so that was that was kind of the thought but in those moments a lot of times I'm scrambling I mean there's no thought like I'm

right at the end of the moment right before I threw it was like that was the last thing I like I wasn't thinking anything until that moment's like I put it high in the we call high back five you know Yep. And that's what it came down to.

And Cole did a great job. You shocked yourself? Nah, I knew it. When I let it go, I knew it was a touchdown. Yeah. A lot of times. Well, dude was so far. Oh, he's up at the front of the goal line on my house.

Yeah, it's front of goal line. So that's why I was like, I got enough space to put in the back and just let Cole fade away to it. Yeah. Yeah, there's a few times throughout the games where you know, like, you let the ball go. And it's like, okay, here we go. So that's why I got up and just went straight to the sideline. I was like, yeah.

It's a little home run trap. Yeah. I meant to do that. That's what I do. That's how we drew it up. It's part of the game. Yeah. Man, I love hearing the Bears quarterback.

Our quarterback, talk about the game in a slow down way, his process during a play and how it unfolded for him. Because when I hear him say that I'm thinking, and myself, this is the flow state you talked about. When I asked you, what does this offense look like when you're cooking? You know, what's the visual? How does it feel?

Like, do you have an idea of what this needs to be when you're at your best? He just described it. It only took me 10 months to get the answer that I tried to figure out. But that right there, when you know your quarterback can see it or have it unfold that way and let you inside of his process. It was a good thing. Just the part where he's almost describing as if he's looking at an arcade view of the entire field because he's backpedaled so far that he could see everything.

And what he sees on the left side in the corner is a little guy and a big guy and he sees the numbers. He knows who's who. And he's like, ah, I just got to put it behind him. We're good. We're good. Well, and just the confidence. And then also, what do you say about what your requirement is for every head coaching candidate? or offensive coach candidate.

Have you played a little Madden? And clearly, Caleb, Ben, they have played Madden. The fact that it's just part of your football knowledge now in this way. Like, that's what I was thinking, too, is I'm like, he's basically describing a Madden. And then we heard Max Crosby and Madden play. That's it for me. Back, let it go. Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back.

But to have the wherewithal to know you need to throw it in the back of the end zone, and still do all of those things, when you can tell me about your process, that's how I know how well you're seeing the game. I just wonder if he felt like he was avenging almost that moment with Cole Comet, putting it in the right place against the Packers at Lambeau Field, as the way he described it, you know?

I think that would be an excellent follow-up question. We have more coming up on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, a little bit more from the Caleb Williams and Max Crosby podcast too. We will get to that later in our show. We will do that a little bit later. but in the meantime, it's time to check in on the NFL news. I mentioned this. Players could have the franchise tag as soon as yesterday.

So Mike Florio will come in and talk to us about the latest NFL news as free agency. Starts to Starts to happen. You got that? Next.