Terry Bradshaw defends Caleb Williams on FOX NFL Sunday as Bears QB criticised

The Chicago Bears were on the wrong end of an end-game situation as they lost to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving - with Caleb Williams at the centre of the drama

Terry Bradshaw and Michael Strahan were at odds with Howie Long on FOX NFL Sunday after the latter laid some of the blame on Chicago Bears rookie Caleb Williams following their perplexing end-of-game tactics against the Detroit Lions.

With a mere 36 seconds remaining and the Bears trailing by three on Thanksgiving, head coach Matt Eberflus made the surprising decision not to take a timeout or rush a play to advance into field goal territory. Positioned slightly outside field goal range on third down, Eberflus allowed time to tick away as he waited for Williams to execute another play before finally calling for a timeout.

However, Williams, who appeared to be waiting for direction from his coaches, took too much time and ended up making an incomplete deep pass attempt. In less than a day after the match, Eberflus found himself dismissed by the Bears' executives.

On FOX NFL Sunday, Long was of the view that Williams should have asserted control over the momentum by either using a timeout on his own accord or rushing a swift play to enter field goal range. He stated: "This is a team that crawled their way back into this game versus Detroit, in Detroit, on the road.

"You're on the one-yard line, you take the ball down the field, you're first down on the 25-yard line. At the very least, this game should've went to overtime.

"It was somewhat chaotic between there and third down when the play clock ran out. The head coach was culpable, the co-ordinator was culpable, in someways the young quarterback was - but he'll learn from that. To me, this is a great job. The Bears have the personnel, and they've got the quarterback - I really like the quarterback."

Meanwhile, Strahan disagreed, stating that Williams shouldn't be blamed for Eberflus' decision not to call a timeout, as the quarterback was simply following his coach's instructions on the field. He said: "I don't think you can put any of that on the quarterback. You're on a young quarterback, you're a rookie, you're dependent on this coach to make that decision. Not on him... that's on the coach."

Bradshaw concurred, saying: "He was not in charge of time outs, that's the head coach, offensive coordinator, somebody else - not that rookie quarterback!"

The Bears have since appointed former pass-game coordinator and offensive coordinator Thomas Brown as interim head coach until the end of the season, hoping to attract a top candidate, with Williams likely to be a major draw for any potential coach.