CHICAGO (670 The Score) – There will be a time the Bears put their rewarding season in perspective, a moment to reflect how far they came in head coach Ben Johnson's first year, maybe even celebrate a return to NFL relevance that rallied a football city around their cause.
But not now. Not yet.
It might take awhile after their heartbreaking 20-17 loss to the Rams in overtime Sunday, the kind of defeat that makes acceptance seem further away because the Bears came so very close. Pain was everywhere postgame. There was running back D'Andre Swift fighting back tears in front of his locker, safety Jaquan Brisker still wearing his full uniform because he didn't want the season to end and plenty of Bears teammates searching for the right words to explain what felt inexplicable to them.
This one stung, with the magic running out shortly after Caleb Williams' latest Houdini act in another fourth quarter, raising everyone's hopes at Soldier Field and throughout Chicago only to have them dashed in overtime. This one left Johnson, whose intensity drove the Bears from worst to first in the NFC North, tapping into his sensitivity because of everything this team experienced together.
"I am proud of the group,” an emotional Johnson said. "This is a special group. This will be hopefully a feeling we won't forget and we'll be able to use it as fuel moving forward.”
Johnson's sense of history is as good as his knack for calling plays and, in Chicago, we have all kinds of examples to back his notion up. They tend to exist in championship runs, from the '85 Bears getting fueled by a loss to the 49ers in the 1984 NFC Championship Game to the '90s Bulls being buoyed by exorcising their Pistons demons. What about the 2010 Blackhawks needing their 2009 Western Conference Finals defeat to the Red Wings or the 2016 Cubs learning from being swept in the 2015 National League Championship Series?
In time, maybe the Bears similarly will be motivated by suffering a season-ending loss to the Rams, and there's plenty of time to examine those scenarios. But immediately after, the words were so hard to come by because of how near reality their Super Bowl dream appeared.
In the end, the Iceman giveth and the Iceman taketh away.
Williams went from hero to goat in a matter of minutes, sending the game into overtime with an amazing touchdown pass with 18 seconds left before throwing a costly interception at the worst possible time – in overtime.
Unpressured on second-and-8 from the Rams’ 48-yard line and need a field goal to win in overtime, Williams floated a pass intended for DJ Moore that Rams safety Kam Curl intercepted to thwart a promising Bears drive. Williams expected Moore to cut under Curl, but he stayed on top of the route.
"A miscommunication between him and I,” Williams said.
Whether Moore failed to finish the route or Williams missed badly will be something fans can debate for months, but this is indisputable: The Bears only looked reinvigorated in overtime because Williams resuscitated them late in the fourth quarter.
You can criticize Williams for showing poor judgment on a throw that will haunt him all offseason. But also realize that the Bears never would've been playing in overtime – or in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, for that matter – if not for Williams making plays that ordinary quarterbacks can't.
"It's tough,” said Williams, who was 23-of-42 for 257 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions with a 59.3 passer rating.
"In these moments, you feel you let your team down.”
This one will leave a mark, mostly because the loss followed the script of so many wins except for the ending. That was the plot twist nobody saw coming, because another Hollywood ending seemed inevitable after Williams' familiar fourth-quarter heroics.
And nobody ever will forget that scene.
"The most special throw I have ever seen,” Bears safety Kevin Byard called Williams' final touchdown pass.
On fourth-and-4 from the Rams’ 14-yard line with 27 seconds left in regulation and the Bears trailing 17-10, desperate times called for desperate measures. Williams backed up in the pocket, retreating near the 40-yard line, then heaved a desperation pass into the corner of the north end zone. History will record it as a 14-yard touchdown pass, but the pass traveled 51.2 yards in the air, according to Next Gen Stats.
It was the same end zone that Moore caught two game-winning touchdown passes to beat the Packers earlier this season, and it was where tight end Cole Kmet -- the longest-tenured Bear -- came through in the clutch and with the ball. Kmet got behind Rams cornerback Cobie Durant – who had two interceptions in the game – and caught the pass before celebrating with his patented baseball swing for the fences.
It might be, it could be, it was the catch of Kmet's career.
"I saw Cole one-on-one over there and just understanding (Durant) was on him,” Williams said, referencing that the 6-foot-6-inch Kmet had seven inches on Durant. "I just wanted to give my best ball and give him a shot.”
The play also offered Williams a chance to atone for another questionable decision. On fourth-and-goal from the Rams’ 2-yard with 3:03 left in regulation, Williams impossibly tried to thread the needle by aiming for receiver Luther Burden III between two Rams defenders. The pass never made it through as Rams linebacker Omar Speights deflected it.
It was one of three possessions in which the Bears offense moved within the Rams' 32 and came away without points.
"You have to give the Rams credit,” Johnson said. "They ended up making a couple more plays than we did.”
Conditions invited both teams to run the ball, but early on, only Johnson RSVP'd. The temperature at kickoff was 18 degrees, with swirling winds making it feel more like single digits. This wasn’t the night for a finesse passing game to flourish.
That was obvious on the opening drive when Bears receiver Rome Odunze dropped a pass at the Rams’ 1-yard line that would've been a touchdown, but it slipped through his cold fingers. Yet despite the big hints to hunker down with the running game, Rams coach Sean McVay relied heavily on the pass – especially in the first half when he called 27 pass plays compared to seven runs. McVay executed a game plan more ideal for sunshine than snow flurries, and the Bears capitalized. In the second half, McVay adjusted by calling runs on 24 of the Rams' 43 snaps.
McVay wasn't the only person who will remember what happened at halftime Sunday or all day, for that matter.
This was the most special of occasions nobody in a football city will soon forget, with Bears fans tailgating in the South Lot like it was a late-summer Sunday instead of mid-winter's bitterest Midwestern offering. Jim Cornelison, whose national anthem stamps every Chicago sporting event a big deal, delivered a rousing rendition that cut through the cold as a 100-yard flag draped Soldier Field.
At halftime, while McVay plotted a new offensive approach, Johnson's lifelong good-better-best buddy from North Carolina, country music star Chase Rice, performed. Rice played a few of his hits inside the stadium shown on the scoreboard that included Rice wearing Johnson's high school jersey before ripping it off as he finished – bare-chested on a day more ideal for ice fishing than football.
As expected, the wintry elements affected both offenses but most obviously the Rams.
Any speed or route-running advantages the Rams receivers held over the Bears were neutralized by a field covered with snow from the first quarter on, making sharp cuts or explosive moves more difficult. On a dry field under different conditions, perhaps Puka Nacua and Davante Adams run crisper routes and Matthew Stafford throws tighter spirals. But on this snowy night in Chicago, the Rams offense sputtered against a Bears secondary that showed up revved up and ready.
It's fair to wonder how Stafford's injured index finger on his throwing hand impaired his accuracy. For instance, taking over at midfield in the third quarter after a Williams interception, Stafford sailed two passes on second and third downs that he usually delivers. Stafford didn't look like the MVP frontrunner in completing 20 of 42 passes for 258 yards, but he didn't throw a pick.
That said, nothing should detract from an overall spirited defensive effort by the Bears – especially the secondary.
Montez Sweat applied pressure and forced a fumble. Jaquan Brisker harassed the Rams by blitzing, covering and supporting the run. Kyler Gordon, employed often in a six-defensive back alignment, flew around like the healthy weapon that defensive coordinator Dennis Allen missed all season.
Tyrique Stevenson was tested and, for the most part, passed. There were individual breakdowns, such as Rams tight end Colby Parkinson getting free for a 35-yard reception that reminded everyone how hampered cornerback Jaylon Johnson is fighting through a season-long injury. But overall, to the surprise of many, the Bears defense played well enough to win the football game. The Rams led the NFL in points scored and yards gained yet managed a relatively meager 340 yards against the Bears and punted eight times.
"Our defense played their tails off,” Johnson said. "That's the No. 1 offense in football.”
Alas, Johnson's offense let the Bears down most. And yet it was the main reason the Bears accomplished all they did this season. They won the NFC North, won the franchise's first playoff game in 15 years, beat the rival Packers twice and authored seven fourth-quarter comebacks.
That they couldn't muster an eighth ruined their night – but not their season.
"When you're with a group of men for the last time in the locker room and you know it's just not going to be the same going forward … I appreciate all of them, the men and the women, coaches, players, support staff, everybody that had a role this season,” Johnson said.
It was a season worth savoring in Chicago because, even though the Rams moved on, the Bears are back.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-10 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. He also co-hosts The Chicago Lead and the Big Pro Football Show on weeknights on the Chicago Sports Network. Follow him on X @DavidHaugh.