Bears QB Caleb Williams hurts hamstring on non-contact play in 9-3 loss to Vikings

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams crumpled to the ground without being touched in the fourth quarter Sunday.

When he did, the hopes of a Bears fan base that spent all offseason preparing for Williams to become the rarest thing in franchise history — a star quarterback — plummeted alongside him.

The damp throng at Soldier Field fell silent as Williams fell at the Vikings’ 6-yard line on a planned run that seemed destined for a touchdown. Williams rolled, screamed and grabbed at his face mask. He got on all fours and tried to get up but couldn’t. He eventually went to the Bears’ sideline, then to a cart. During the 30-yard ride from the medical tent to the northwest tunnel, Williams ripped off the white towel he had draped over his face and pumped his fist, drawing the first signs of life from the dazed fans.

‘‘If No. 18 gets hurt, I’m worried,’’ cornerback Malik Muhammad said. ‘‘The whole stadium was worried. Maybe the whole world.’’

Williams will have further testing on his right hamstring Monday. What that reveals — whether his injury will be measured in weeks or months — will have a bigger impact on the Bears’ postseason hopes that anything that happened in the team’s 9-3 loss to the NFC North rival Vikings.

About 20 minutes after the game, Williams walked through the locker room carrying his duffel bag. He seemed upbeat and said hello to people. As he walked past backup quarterback Tyson Bagent’s media scrum, he said the words “all good.”

Coach Ben Johnson was relieved when he found out exactly what body part Williams hurt.

‘‘I’m actually happy that it’s nothing with the knee,’’ he said. ‘‘That was my first inclination. But yet the hamstring could be pretty damaging, as well. We’ll see how bad it is [Monday], and we’ll go from there.’’

Williams’ teammates were just as jarred. Wide receiver Kalif Raymond said that while the team tried to focus on the next play, ‘‘in the huddle, we’re all thinking a lot of things.’’

They were all scary.

Williams hurt his left hamstring in the Pac-12 championship game while at USC. Before Sunday, he had gone two seasons and two games never having missed an NFL snap because of injury. That’s likely to change, starting with the Bears’ ‘‘Monday Night Football’’ game Sept. 28 against the Eagles.

‘‘I’ve never seen him be down like that,’’ wide receiver Rome Odunze said. ‘‘He usually pops back up. I’ve seen him pop back after hits and all sorts of things.’’

The timing of Williams’ injury couldn’t be worse for him or the Bears. After an offseason in which Williams landed the ‘‘Madden’’ cover and became a trendy pick to be among the NFL’s best players, he lived up to the hype in the Bears’ season opener, leading the team to 59 points.

That was an electric start to a critical season for the franchise. The Bears can give Williams a contract extension at the end of this season and viewed this as his opportunity to stake his claim to franchise-quarterback status — and dollars. A shortened season and a hampered quarterback only will cloud that evaluation.

Even before he was hurt, Williams was far from the quarterback that torched the Panthers with his arm and legs. The Vikings blitzed him on a whopping 77% of his dropbacks Sunday, forcing him into his first interception of the season and a 56.2 passer rating on 15-for-26 passing for 138 yards.

At times, the Bears’ most effective play-call against Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores was to let Williams scramble, which he did five times for 42 yards. A highlight-reel run in the first quarter set up the Bears’ only three points, a 50-yard field goal by Cairo Santos.

Santos had another field goal blocked — a 23-yard chip shot three plays after Bagent replaced Williams. It was the second time the Bears got to at least the Vikings’ 5-yard line and came away with no points. Running back D’Andre Swift fumbled on first-and-goal from the 1 on the Bears’ first drive of the third quarter.

‘‘I think [Flores] did a great job,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘And we get a little momentum coming out of halftime there, and we make it all the way down and then kinda give it up. We had some points in the bag, I thought.’’

Both the Bears and the weather were sloppy. Playing in a downpour, the Bears were flagged eight times for 58 yards. On their second-to-last drive of the first half, they were called for three consecutive offensive penalties — an illegal shift, holding and intentional grounding — and had four flags in the course of five plays. They backpedaled from the Vikings’ 30 to their own 45. Moving back out of field-goal range, the Bears were forced to punt.

Johnson bemoaned the flags but said the weather was a ‘‘major factor in this game.’’

It wasn’t nearly as important as Williams’ status going forward.

‘‘My reaction was probably the same as crowd’s,’’ defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. ‘‘We’re definitely wishing the best for him. . . .

‘‘It just shows that he’s human. He’s Superman, but he is human.’’

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