Bears' Ben Johnson considered two-point conversion against Rams after Caleb Williams' epic touchdown

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson rolled the dice often this season en route to an NFC North title and nearly eight quarters of playoff football, trusting Caleb Williams and a talented offense to convert in critical situations -- until the waning seconds of regulation on Sunday night's classic following an epic touchdown toss to Cole Kmet.

Johnson said he considered a two-point conversion try with 18 seconds to play rather than tie the game with a PAT and play for overtime, but had strong reasoning for his decision prior to Chicago's 20-17 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

"Thought about it," Johnson said. "Probably what played a little bit of a factor was our goal-to-go situations hadn't gone very clean. Our inside the five-[yard line] plan hadn't worked out quite like we had hoped. I just felt better about taking our chances there in overtime."

The Bears converted 57% of their two-point conversion attempts this season, which was above the league average per Stats Muse, and converted a NFL-leading 15 times on fourth downs en route to a playoff berth. Johnson has a handful of trick plays his team executed well this fall, but when it was time to potentially offer another one up to get to the NFC Championship, the offensive guru declined.

Johnson trusted Chicago's defense, a unit that came up with a three-and-out stop on the Rams' first possession prior to Williams' interception in the extra session. The Bears turned it over three times on mistakes from their franchise quarterback and were stuffed on a fourth-and-goal attempt with 3:06 remaining in the fourth quarter on Williams' incompletion to Luther Burden.

It was that errant throw and run-game malfunctions near the goal line that made Johnson hesitate to gamble on a two-point conversion try rather than go with the confident approach he's shown as Chicago's play-caller in his first season.

"It's tough. In these moments you feel that you let your team down," Williams said his interception in overtime led to the Rams' game-winning field goal several players later. "It's a good lesson learned for us, first time being in this situation for me and for us as a team. I'm excited for what's to come, but obviously going to go back and watch this and figure out how I can be better."

Williams finished with 257 yards and two touchdowns, including the 14-yard heave in the back of the end zone to Kmet on a pass that traveled 51 yards in the air and sent Soldier Field into a frenzy.

"They all believed, man," Johnson said. "They all believed that we could find a way to win each and every week. And so it's disappointing like that. I'm proud of the group. It's a special group."