CHICAGO (670 The Score) – If the Bears rallying from an 18-point deficit to beat the Packers, 31-27, on Saturday night at Soldier Field stirred your soul, consider it knocked Ben Johnson off his feet.
Literally.
Johnson tumbled amid the giddy tumult near midfield, bouncing off Bears receiver Rome Odunze and falling on his backside as everyone shared a laugh.
Bottoms up, Bears fans.
What a night it was along the lakefront, a citywide catharsis underway after the Bears didn't just win their first playoff game in 15 years but reignited a rivalry by dispatching the dreaded Packers, the team that talked too much and now has all offseason to wonder why they couldn't back it up.
All week, the nattering from Packers players and coaches north of the cheddar curtain echoed loudly enough to carry to Halas Hall in Lake Forest. Afterward, the man who got everyone's attention on his first day as Bears coach by saying he enjoyed "beating Matt LaFleur twice a year” relished doing just that.
"We heard it loud and clear, players and coaches alike,'' Johnson said of the Packers’ enflamed rhetoric revolving around Bears defensive end Austin Booker's hit in December that concussed Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love.
Raw emotions contributed to a pregame melee at midfield when players talked more trash as kickoff neared.
Actions speak louder than words, of course, and the renewed hostility between the teams was most evident by the postgame handshake in which Johnson barely broke stride after gripping and grinning his way past LaFleur.
It might have been the chilliest thing felt on this 32-degree evening with snow flurries.
By night's end, everyone watching was just numb with disbelief, wherever they were.
It had been 14 years, 11 months and 25 days since the Bears last won a playoff game, a 35-24 elimination of the Seahawks back in 2011.
There might never be another newsy cycle in Chicago sports like Saturday's confluence. The Bears vanquished the Packers within an hour of the Bulls beating the Mavericks at the United Center, the Blackhawks getting a shutout from rookie goalie Drew Commesso and the Cubs signing third baseman Alex Bregman to a five-year, $175-million contract.
Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts, perhaps multitasking, attended the Bears game because nobody in town wanted to miss this.
Not since the Bears won the NFC Championship on the same field, beating the Saints, 39-14, way back on Jan. 21, 2007, had a victory this significant been celebrated.
That win sent the Bears to the Super Bowl. This one stamped them worthy of returning there as early as next month.
You’re forgiven if you would've found that suggestion absurd after two quarters.
It started so badly that Indiana officials anxious to offer the Bears a new home probably called at halftime to say no thanks. Johnson challenged his players at the beginning of the week to prepare for five more weeks, but this one looked over after five drives.
All of a sudden, the Bears defense's inability to stop the Packers had turned Soldier Field into Chicago's biggest library. It was that quiet.
Remember, this was the biggest home football game since the last time these two teams met in the playoffs, the NFC Championship on Jan. 23, 2011 – nearly 15 years ago. This was the kind of pregame setting fresh out of a Hollywood script writer's imagination, with flurries turning the inner bowl into a snow globe. This was the place to be, with the cheapest ticket going for a car payment and the all-day tailgate parties starting before brunch.
Then, shockingly, the Packers led 21-3 at halftime.
Inside the Bears locker room, Johnson reminded his players of a training camp conversation they had about Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5, 2017 – the one when the Patriots rallied from a 28-3 deficit against the Falcons to become champions. Bears All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney was on that Patriot team and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett played for the Falcons, and both men were referenced nearly nine years later because Johnson needed an example.
"That was my message to the group, reminding them that this had been done before,” Johnson said.
Added quarterback Caleb Williams: "It was the only option we had ...to go out there and be legendary.”
And so they conspired to create a Chicago sports moment that will span generations, indelibly etched into the memory of every Bears fan, history readily accessible to brighten the darkest of days.
This was a game that was excruciating to watch in the first half, a Love-struck Bears defense unable to stop the Packers and a bold, first-time playoff head coach letting his aggression get the best of him.
This was equally exhilarating to witness in the second half, a Bears team buoyed by belief all season reaching deep into its reservoir for a little more when it mattered most to counter the pedigree of the Packers. In the end, Soldier Field actually shook. And Love really looked shaken.
The victory was far from easy, but it did follow a familiar pattern for a Bears team that has made a habit out of waiting until the fourth quarter to reach its potential.
Early on, Johnson tested his biggest defender's patience by tapping into his inner Dan Campbell, the Lions coach known best for rolling the dice on fourth downs.
For example: On fourth-and-2 from their own 38-yard line on the first play of the second quarter, the Bears went for it and converted an 18-yard pass to receiver DJ Moore, which emboldened Johnson. But later, with his Bears trailing 14-3 and facing fourth-and-5 from their own 32-yard line, Johnson chose to go for it again. Williams' pass was deflected incomplete. With 5:15 left in the second quarter, it represented the kind of recklessness seldom seen from Johnson, and the Packers followed up with a touchdown.
That curious pattern continued as the Packers held a 21-6 lead with the Bears facing a fourth-and-1 at the Green Bay 6-yard line with just more than three minutes left in the third quarter. Instead of running the ball behind one of the NFL's best offensive lines, Johnson called a play-action fake and Williams threw a pass that Ty'Ron Hopper intercepted. Doubt began to creep in everywhere but the heads of Bears players.
Meanwhile, on the Packers sideline, you have to wonder what was going through kicker Brandon McManus' mind.
The Bears had studied enough video to notice that McManus had missed a field-goal attempt earlier this season after the defense called timeout, a process called "icing the kicker.” So just before the Packers lined up for a 55-yard field-goal try with two seconds left in the first half, the Bears signaled for a timeout – but not before McManus went through the motions and kicked the ball through the uprights. But after the timeout, he missed wide left.
In the NFL, that's called successfully icing the kicker.
Funny how, in the fourth quarter, McManus missed a crucial extra point and a 44-yard field-goal attempt.
Credit also goes to the Bears defense, which was a sieve for the first half, when Love looked too comfortable in the pocket, but only gave up a touchdown after halftime.
But that score was a doozy. On Matthew Golden's 23-yard touchdown reception that gave the Packers a 27-16 lead with 6:36 left, he broke tackles by Jaylon Johnson, Jaquan Brisker, Kyler Gordon and Kevin Byard – pretty much the entire secondary.
Again, the Bears offense came to the rescue.
"Pure belief,” Williams said postgame, still wearing his game pants and No. 18 jersey over his shoulder pads. "That's all you need.”
It helps to have a quarterback who does his best work when trailing late in games, a player "built for this,” as he reminded everyone in his most unlikely and improbable comeback yet. Williams completed 24 of 48 passes for 361 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Watching him more demonstrative than ever on the Bears sideline, his value went beyond the numbers.
That's what leadership looks like.
"Coach said in my headset, 'I need you right here,’” Williams said.
On cue, on fourth-and-8 late in the game, Williams willed a perfect pass to Odunze for 27 yards. Five plays later, he found Olamide Zaccheaus for an eight-yard touchdown.
Then, after McManus' 44-yard miss, Williams went back to work. On a play eerily similar to the 46-yard walk-off touchdown pass on Dec. 20 against the same team, Williams found Moore in the north end zone for a 25-yard touchdown with 1:43 left.
A 25-point fourth quarter was complete.
"It's our identity here at this point … Some people say it's not sustainable, I don't know,'' Johnson said. "That's who these guys are at this point. That's who we are and what we do.”
Inexplicably, they're not done yet.
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.