SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The edge felt extra sharp Sunday night, this swirl of frustration, anger and agitation that was pulsing through the Chicago Bears’ locker room.

Quarterback Caleb Williams knew he needed only one last sentence to finish writing another storybook ending to this wild tale the Bears have been crafting all season. Yet, in Sunday’s very last moment, the pen ran out of ink.

“It’s frustrating,” Williams said, his emotions still raw.

These were the vibes of a magician whose grand finale didn’t work. This was the expression of a talented quarterback whose final pass on an otherwise explosive night found the grass in the south end zone of Levi’s Stadium instead of a Bears receiver.

Williams, despite throwing for a season-high 330 yards with touchdown passes of 35 and 36 yards, wished he had been able to do just a little bit more. Especially on that final pass, a game-deciding moment from the San Francisco 49ers’ 2-yard line with four seconds remaining that could have rescued the Bears from this oh-so-deflating 42-38 loss.

That final play — whatever the preferred design was — quickly became a scramble drill. And with pre-snap chaos followed by early pressure once Williams had the shotgun snap in his hands, a sequence that began at the 2 saw Williams spinning away from 49ers defensive lineman Bryce Huff at the 12, retreating to the 16, shuffling within feet of the left sideline and launching a ball into the end zone.

“We had a shot,” Williams said. “Even with all that going on, the time running down and us misaligned, we had a shot.”

His throw never made it far enough, however. Never reached a teammate, never provided the spectacular ending that would have felt far superior to whatever this form of dejection was.

“I just have to give my guys a shot in that situation,” Williams said. “I haven’t gone back and watched it yet. But I ended up dirting the ball. Didn’t get my legs into it. And I just (have to) put the ball in the end zone in that moment.”

More than 30 minutes after that final play ended, receiver Jahdae Walker sat alone at his locker stall, still stunned and processing it all and still wishing he, too, could have done more as the intended target of that desperation pass.

“With so many red jerseys, it’s hard for Caleb to see me,” Walker said. “But I was trying to run as close as I could to him. I was in the end zone. With my hands up. The ball just came up a little short.”

Walker let out a deep exhale.

“I feel like I should have come back a little more to make that play,” he said. “Maybe I could have come all the way back to the 1 or 2 to catch it and then try to stretch it out. But …”

Admirable as that may be from an undrafted rookie who was running a backside fade when the play began, there were more layers to the discombobulation. For starters, Bears coach Ben Johnson pointed to himself, bothered that he hadn’t gotten his play call in earlier, leading to some of the disarray his offense had in getting set up.