MINNEAPOLIS — The Bears’ path to their seventh win in 10 games wasn’t a straight line Sunday. It was a diagonal one that started when Devin Duvernay caught the ball at his own 4 with a one-point deficit and 50 seconds to play.
He pushed off halfway between the painted yard numbers and the left sideline and angled himself right. Duvernay was even with the numbers when he reached the Bears’ 18 and turned his shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage.
“Lotta green grass,” Duvernay said. “My eyes lit up. It was a moment to make a play.”
Cornerback Josh Blackwell, the Bears other deep man, served as his lead blocker. When he kicked Taverierre Thomas out from the right flank at the 25, Duvernay sprinted through the hole and up the Bears’ sideline.
“Incredible feeling,” Blackwell said.
By the time Duvernay was shoved out of bounds by Eric Wilson at the Vikings’ 40, the Bears were practically in field goal range. Three D’Andre Swift runs later, kicker Cairo Santos booted a 48-yarder as time expired, giving the Bears a 19-17 win against an NFC North rival after an increasingly more creative way to rally in the final minute.
“It’s guys always coming back and stepping in to make big plays for us,” Santos said.
Santos celebrated his game-winner in the locker room. When coach Ben Johnson called him in front of his teammates to hand him the game ball, Santos did the “griddy” while clapping his hands over his head, mimicking the Vikings’ “Skol” chant.
The Bears could afford to smile Sunday. They had a 25% chance to win the game with a minute to play. They had even longer fourth-quarter odds in four other wins this year.
“This isn’t the same old Bears,” safety Kevin Byard said. “This culture — we’ve been battle tested. Never going to apologize for winning. But what I will say is I don’t think as a team yet, we’ve discovered that killer instinct.”
That was evident again Sunday — in part because of special teams gaffes. Through three quarters, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings offense had been so impotent, and U.S. Bank Stadium so funereal, that it appeared the only way the Bears could lose would be by making mistakes. That’s exactly what they did four plays into the quarter, when Myles Price returned Tory Taylor’s punt 43 yards to the Bears’ 24. Two Jordan Mason runs later, the Vikings were celebrating their first touchdown of the game.
The Bears still led 16-10, though, and bullied their way down the field, chewing four minutes before Swift was stuffed for no gain on third-and-three.
Santos lined up to kick a 45-yard field goal — and yanked it left. Santos, who missed time with a quad injury earlier this year, called the miss “a summary of how the season’s gone for me” — frustrating.
Santos said he’d been in a “great rhythm” all game, feeling so strong that he made a 61-yarder in warmups and would have been able to try something similar if needed at the end of the game. In that sense, Duvernay’s return put the Bears in field-goal range without them having to run an offensive play.
Johnson, who kicked the game-winner on fourth-and-one, had faith his kicker would rebound.
“He doesn’t let things — one miss — phase him,” Johnson said. “We know it’s highly likely he’ll make the next one. So, he really kind of embodies what we are as a team. Very resilient.”
The Bears needed to be rescued after McCarthy, who hadn’t thrown so much as a second-half completion, marched the Vikings 85 yards on 10 plays, completing a five-yard pass to Jordan Addison on fourth-and-four midway through the drive and then finding him for a 15-yard touchdown with 50 seconds to play.
Then Duvernay caught the kickoff.
“We absolutely needed that,” Johnson said. “He had kind of been waiting for one of those, to be honest with you. He’s come really close a number of times — and then he was able to capture it on the bounce there and got us right there on the cuff of field goal range.”
Quarterback Caleb Williams predicted to the two-time Pro Bowl returner before the game that he’d make an impact. When he caught the kickoff with 50 seconds to play, Williams felt a similar confidence.
“You could kinda see the stampede of people on the right side and you could kinda see and feel the space [on the left],” Williams said. “I just had a feeling he was going to make a big play right there, and he did.”
It was another improbable way to win in a season full of them.
“It kinda just cycles around on who’s stepping up to the plate and bringing us the win,” Johnson said. “I think that’s what good teams do.”
