(670 The Score) On Ben Johnson's good-better-best scale, the Bears' pulsating 47-42 victory over the Bengals on Sunday provided a good challenge for a team better than expected after its best moment of his first season.
After three touchdowns and two lead changes in the final two minutes at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, everybody can exhale now.
Now, you also should realize that after enduring eight lead changes overall, a career day by 40-year-old Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco, numerous special teams breakdowns and an epic defensive collapse, the Bears have to apologize for absolutely nothing.
This is the NFL, where they don't offer apologies and there are no voters or committees to impress. There are simply standings, and suddenly the Bears are at 5-3 just like the Lions – just behind the NFC North-leading 5-2-1 Packers, who would've loved to have celebrated an ugly victory Sunday instead of lamenting a stunning loss.
"As a coach, you don't take these things for granted,” Johnson told reporters postgame.
Johnson knows. It's perfectly fine for teams like the Bears that haven't won a playoff game in almost 15 years to express more gratitude than regret on the road back to NFL relevance. While this one sure wasn't pretty for the Bears, it beats losing. It beats coming close and reinforcing the notion that Bears tradition involves inventing ways to lose. It sure beats sulking about falling to .500 in a week that instead will include playoff projections and trade deadline debates.
Midway through Johnson's first season in Chicago, admittedly it's easy to see that all phases of the game remain in the growth stage, but the Bears under not-so-gentle Ben have become a team defined by resiliency and resourcefulness. That's the most indelible mark left after surviving Cincy.
Staring at defeat, down 42-41 with less than a minute left on the road, the Bears deepened that identity.
"That's what we are,” quarterback Caleb Williams told reporters postgame. "When things don't go our way, when adversity hits, we find ways to win for each other.”
Against all odds, Williams found rookie tight end Colston Loveland in the right place. On first-and-10 at his own 42-yard line with 25 seconds remaining, Williams walked to the line of scrimmage and noticed the Bengals were in the two-deep coverage that the Bears had been waiting for all game.
"We were hunting that coverage all day,” Williams would say afterward.
Loveland ran a seam route that split the safeties, and Williams perfectly delivered the pass. That's when a good play became a great one. Instead of getting tackled or going down to set up a frantic last-second, game-winning field-goal attempt, the 6-foot-6-inch Loveland bounced off safeties Jordan Battle and Gene Stowe to break into the clear.
Exactly 58 yards later, Loveland crossed into the end zone to save the day with a touchdown that made the field goal moot.
"In that moment, it's like (NBA star) Steph Curry with (Warriors coach) Steve Kerr, it's, ‘No, no, no, yes, yes, yes!’" Williams said. "Colston made a great play. That's why he's here.”
Indeed, Loveland catching six passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns was what Bears general manager Ryan Poles had in mind when making the 10th overall choice of the 2025 NFL Draft. That Loveland's biggest NFL moment so far came in the Buckeye state only made it all the more appropriate for the Michigan Man.
"I'm just glad we won the game,” Loveland said humbly, grasping the game ball.
It was a breakthrough day for more than one Bears rookie.
Running back Kyle Monangai rose to the occasion with veteran D'Andre Swift missing the game due to an injury, allowing the Bears to control the ball for 34 minutes, 30 seconds.
The Little Gai came up big, seldom letting the first tackler bring him down. Monangai had 26 carries for 176 yards, looking more like a proven starter than a seventh-round draft pick. That it came against the NFL's worst defense factors into any reaction but not as much as the most significant development for the Bears – the 21st running back drafted last April has earned Johnson's trust eight games into his NFL career.
Likewise, promising defensive end Austin Booker dominated Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. enough to create a sack-strip-fumble in his 2025 debut. Booker's emergence in the second half can go a long way toward helping a pass rush that needs more oomph, even with Montez Sweat flashing more in recent games.
Speaking of defense, coordinator Dennis Allen immediately inserted nickelback C.J. Gardner-Johnson into the lineup, and he responded with six tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry. But Gardner-Johnson was one of only a few bright spots on a historically bad day for the Bears defense. Consider that the Bears led 41-27 with 4:53 left, and the defense still needed the offense to come to the rescue after it collectively let go of the rope.
All due to the ageless Flacco, who completed 31 of 46 passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns. In 198 previous NFL regular-season starts, Flacco never had thrown for that many yards in a game. Until the beaten-up Bears secondary showed up.
Sure, you could say that Flacco's first interception – a tremendous, diving grab by linebacker Tremaine Edmunds – should've counted as a Bears touchdown that replay review negated, but that doesn't diminish from Flacco looking elite at times against Chicago (his second interception was the final Hail Mary heave). He regularly exploited holes in the secondary, especially late as it appeared Bears safety Jaquan Brisker arrived just a half-step late on two key completions.
All told, giving up 495 total yards should prevent overconfidence from creeping into the defensive meeting rooms at Halas Hall.
More than anything, the Bears also won in spite of their special teams. Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower's unit gave up a 98-yard touchdown to Charlie Jones on the opening kickoff return. Jones, who grew up in Deerfield watching Devin Hester make magic out of so many returns, put his hometown team in an immediate 7-0 hole.
Then there was Cairo Santos missing another makeable field-goal attempt. And the Bears failing to recover the onside kick with 1:42 left when the ball bounced off Daniel Hardy's toe will be something Hightower needs to explain. Why doesn't the hands team include more players with, well, good hands?
Nonetheless, on a day in which so much went wrong, more went right for the Bears.
Remember that when evaluating Williams too. For those who insist on having a weekly referendum on Williams as a franchise quarterback, he looked the part more often than not Sunday – praise tempered by the reality that he was facing a sieve in the Cincinnati defense. For the third straight week, the Bengals gave up at least 31 points. But the most scrutinized athlete in Chicago bounced back from a losing effort in Baltimore by completing 20 of 34 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns with a 114.8 passer rating.
Showing good athleticism, Williams also ran five times for 53 yards, using his legs intelligently to get first downs. And he caught two passes for 21 yards as Johnson reminded everyone how much he loves the razzle-dazzle. One of the trick plays involved Tyson Bagent cleverly hitting Williams for a 20-yard gain. On the trick play that went for a touchdown in the first quarter, Williams tossed the ball to Rome Odunze, who flipped it to DJ Moore, who quickly passed it back to Williams, who was all alone in the end zone.
"The hot potato play,” Williams revealed, explaining the play named for how quickly the ball must pass from player to player. "We practiced that for two weeks. It was a big play for us.”
There were so many.
It was the kind of game you immediately want to forget if you lose but indelibly becomes memorable for the way it was won.
“This is a big moment for us,” Williams said.
It can be in the context of this season – and that's the only thing that really matters.
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. Follow him on X @DavidHaugh.