Film guru points out where Caleb Williams and DJ Moore’s fatal miscommunication might have happened

Plenty of people have already weighed in on the devastating overtime interception that essentially ended the Chicago Bears’ season on Sunday night, from fans to former NFL quarterbacks like Chase Daniel.

While the throw from quarterback Caleb Williams could have been better (potentially), a lot of people, including myself, have had some harsh words from DJ Moore about the route he ran on the play, whether fairly or unfairly.

This latest post from Bobby Peters, an author whos work on NFL playbooks makes fans smarter with ever read, might add some context to the play itself from an Xs and Os standpoint.

Peters, who says he’s working on a manual of the 2025 Chicago Bears offense (which I will almost certainly be buying), took to X on Monday to draw up the exact play the Bears were running on that ill-fated throw and show several examples of the Bears running it earlier this season.

“The Bears have called this specific play a handful of times. It is part of their vast Intermediate Cross family. The route is designed to break at 10 yards, with an aiming point of about 18 yards on the opposite numbers. The three examples here show the route breaking much earlier than Moore broke. Williams' footwork last night also matches the timing of an Intermediate Cross,” Peters wrote.

"The Bears do carry a deeper Cross, part of the "Latch" family. They also carry a Deep Over. These three families of concepts look similar, but the context of studying Johnson's offense in detail can piece the puzzle together.”

This will be discussed in the Bears Manual, but the discussion around Caleb's final INT is starving for context.

The Bears have called this specific play a handful of times. It is part of their vast Intermediate Cross family. The route is designed to break at 10 yards, with an… pic.twitter.com/JbrJsGZ2dN
— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 20, 2026

As you can see, this play is often run as a chunk-play option around midfield, with some exceptions. If you’re judging from this breakdown, it might suggest Williams was right to expect Moore to keep things flatter. In several of the other examples, Rome Odunze and even Moore himself cut the route off earlier on the backside, allowing the deep route to put the safety in more of a bind.

However, it should be noted Williams himself said Moore’s original route on that play was to go deep and attack the safety's angle, which he did. The question, then, is whether they typically adjust the route depending on the safety’s leverage, which in this case would’ve dictated that Moore probably should’ve attacked the angle flatter. Had he done so, safety Kam Curl likely can’t get to that ball in time. To that point, though, Williams’ throw, which likely came as a result of him being caught in between knowing where he wanted Moore to be versus where the receiver actually was, ended up far too close to Curl. What can we say? Sometimes, [bleep] happens.

Ultimately, we don’t know with 100 percent accuracy what should’ve happened on this play, even if we might be able to surmise it from past examples. Plays can get messy in real time, and that’s why Williams stressed the importance of getting on the same page for next time. And regardless of who's (more) right or wrong, Williams did the right thing in owning the criticism and protecting his guy.

It’s easy to keep beating up on Moore and saying we want him out of town. But this game, in the end, is about moving on to the next play and learning from mistakes. As long as he's a member of the Bears, he's going to be a big part of this offense.

Hopefully, this is just fuel for both players to come back better next year.

More Chicago Bears News:

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