CHICAGO (670 The Score) – There are moments from sporting events you'll never forget, twists and turns so dramatic that you can't explain them no matter how much time passes, plays or games you immediately just know are special.
Saturday night at Soldier Field was all of those.
And then some.
This was the latest reason why you're now likely to hear players and coaches refer to the Bears as a team of destiny with late matriarch Virginia McCaskey looking down from above, why Bears opponents will keep cursing the football gods and why the Super Bowl, inexplicably, remains within the Bears' reach.
“Team of destiny?” Caleb Williams asked in the interview room after his heroics. “That's the cool part about destiny, you've got to get to the end to know.”
This feels like the beginning of something special for the Bears.
This is what happens when you erase a 10-point deficit with two minutes to play in regulation and somehow win the game in overtime on DJ Moore’s 46-yard touchdown reception from Williams for the ages.
This is what an intoxicating, improbable 22-16 comeback win over the Packers meant to this increasingly magical season – everything.
So much had to go right for the Bears to win and Williams to end the night with a victory lap around the stadium to thank the 60,251 fans who paid a pretty penny to attend.
Then everything did.
Everything from a beleaguered Bears defense finally getting a stop and creating a takeaway to Cairo Santos kicking another field goal to Josh Blackwell recovering an onside kick to Jahdae Walker catching his first career touchdown pass to Williams and Moore getting their chemistry down when it mattered most.
Yes, everything had to happen when it mattered most for the Bears to have a shot to beat the Packers at home for the first time since 2018.
Then, somehow, everything did.
"Unreal!" a voice could be overheard shouting in the Bears locker room as they celebrated.
But this is real. This isn’t fantasy football. And here's the reality becoming increasingly clear every week: These Bears are Super Bowl contenders.
They might not have the NFC's most complete roster or the NFL's most proven playmakers. They might not have an airtight defense or the experience that every contender wants.
But the Bears have a head coach who never gives in, players that never say die and a belief that can be more powerful than any running game. They have a focused group of veterans capable of blocking out distractions, from a team president calling a team meeting to address a stadium project that doesn't affect current players to headset issues that complicated Saturday's final moments on the sideline. They have a team that's learned how to win, not lose.
"This season is like a movie,'' longtime play-by-play man Jeff Joniak bellowed on Bears radio.
So many of Saturday's scenes were Hollywoodesque.
There was Moore, playing through a back injury, leaping to catch a perfect pass from Williams for the game-winner and invoking the memory of Mrs.
McCaskey afterward.
There was Walker, an undrafted rookie from Texas A&M, hauling in the tying touchdown like a seasoned pro.
There was Santos, after being called out by special teams coordinator Richard Hightower earlier this week, coming through on a blustery night with three field goals and the perfectly placed onside kick.
And there was Ben Johnson, who killed the buzz in the building early with fourth-down trickery that backfired, redeeming himself by calling the game-winning play that he installed this week and which will be remembered forever.
Williams and Johnson were watching film together at Halas Hall and came up with the concept they brought to life, first when it worked at practice and finally when the connection created a merry Christmas for the city.
"DJ ran a great route, and Caleb threw him a great ball,” Johnson said.
"I knew it was good,” Williams added, as confident as ever with his Jordanesque tone.
“You hit plays like that in practice, it's time to go hit it. It's time to win the game.”
It wasn't easy, but then nothing is for the Bears.
The Packers took a 16-6 lead deep into the fourth quarter with a backup quarterback, a backup right tackle, a backup tight end and a backup running back. The Bears defense was as healthy as it has been all season. Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds returned in the middle alongside T.J. Edwards. The secondary was whole. So was the defensive line, which on the opening drive even deployed three defensive tackles and two ends on the same play. Everyone who was impactful was available to the Bears defense.
It didn't matter. The Packers controlled the line of scrimmage, grinding out 192 rushing yards.
Montez Sweat was going against right tackle Jordan Morgan, who was starting in place of the injured Zach Tom, and Morgan barely broke a sweat until the final drive. But when the Packers got the ball back for one last desperate drive in regulation, Sweat came up big with a sack that represented his most important play of the season.
Earlier, Austin Booker knocked Jordan Love out of the game with a helmet-to-helmet sack with 8:15 left in the second quarter. It was Booker's second personal foul penalty of the game, a tough one that underscores the impossible balance that pass rushers must strike between aggressively pursuing the quarterback and finding a way to minimize collisions. Love ducked his head and, to some degree, once he did that a helmet-to-helmet collision seemed inevitable. As for Booker, he's coached never to go low and frankly had too much momentum from his burst to change course.
It was a bad play for both teams.
Without Love, the Packers attacked the Bears the same way they did with their starter. They ran the ball right down the field and mixed in safe, short passes near the first-down markers. They controlled the clock and kept the Bears offense on the sideline, running more than twice as many plays in the first half. The Bears only had three offensive drives in the first two quarters, running 20 plays total. The Packers only led 6-0 at the half despite moving the ball to the Bears’ 7-, 8- and 4-yard lines on successive drives. The domination made a six-point deficit feel more like a 16-point difference.
Malik Willis sure didn't play like a backup quarterback. He stayed within himself to get comfortable, finding tight end Luke Musgrave twice on the opening series of the second half. He made plays with his legs, deking Edmunds in the open field. He put the Packers in scoring position, leading another drive down to the 3-yard line.
Then a beaten-up Bears defense did what it does best. Midway through the third quarter, it took the ball away.
Packers running back Josh Jacobs had the ball ripped out of his grip by Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright in a play reminiscent of Wright's takeaway against the Eagles on Black Friday when he did the same thing to quarterback Jalen Hurts during the tush push. Edmunds recovered this one and even though the Bears offense failed to turn that takeaway into points, the turnover kept the Packers from opening a 10-point lead.
Until the fateful final minutes that led to an unforgettable overtime, something just seemed off about the Bears, from Johnson making a questionable play call early to the Bears looking undisciplined with 10 penalties for 105 yards. Center Drew Dalman, who made a high snap to Kyle Monangai on a pivotal play, got called for holding on a late fourth-quarter gain.
It was the 10th play of a textbook opening drive for the Bears, fourth-and-1 from the Packers’ 4-yard line, when Johnson finally did something worth criticizing.
Johnson's scripted first 15, as the kids say, was popping.
To this point, the Bears' play-calling expert had kept the Packers defense off-balance, mixing in short passes and downhill runs and spreading the ball around liberally. The best of Johnson was on display for a national television audience and Tom Brady in the FOX booth to behold.
Then, needing three feet for a first down, the Bears got too cute.
Williams split wide left like a receiver. Monangai was the lone running back in the Wildcat formation. Cole Kmet went in motion and stopped behind center, acting as if he'd take the snap.
But Dalman hiked the ball over Monangai's head, the Bears lost 18 yards and possession and a crowd ready to absolutely explode with enthusiasm was defused.
It's hard to remember another play called by Johnson this season that raised so much doubt.
You could argue the Bears should've played it safe and kicked the field goal to take an early 3-0 lead. You could say going for it was fine but wonder why the Bears didn't hand off to either Monangai or D'Andre Swift. You could be justified for wondering if Johnson was trying to show off in front of Packers coach Matt LeFleur, his nemesis.
But there was no debate that the Packers making that fourth-down stop prevented the Bears from seizing momentum early and perhaps never giving it back. Inside a raucous Soldier Field, Johnson had killed the buzz.
"That was one we felt strongly about during practice (and) the last thing on my mind was the ball was going to go over his head,” Johnson said later.
All would be forgiven later, if not forgotten by next week's fourth-and-short play.
Special teams made Johnson's rare miscalculation moot anyway.
Swirling winds made conditions more challenging than bone-chilling temperatures. Yet Santos rose to the occasion for the Bears, nailing three field goals, including a 51-yarder. Even more impressive was the onsides kick with 1:59 left in the fourth quarter that Blackwell recovered.
Eight plays later, Williams responded to blitz pressure in his face with a floater to the right corner of the end zone. Walker skillfully snagged the ball out of the air and mindfully landed with both feet in bounds.
Hello, overtime.
And you know what happened next.
Bears fans always will remember what happened next.
"This is a special group,” Johnson said.
This is a group that came into the season with so many questions but now only really has one after the Bears' biggest moment in years: Why not us?
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.