Nothing has been normal for the Bears this season, and the craziness continued Saturday night against the Packers. As has been their custom, just when the Bears looked like they were done, they stormed back into the game and forced overtime.
Somehow, inexplicably, the electricity has lasted all season, and now they’re on the brink of making the playoffs after an insane comeback against their archrival with a 22-16 win in overtime.
The Bears took the game, and quite possibly the NFC North, on quarterback Caleb Williams’ 46-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore that sent the largest crowd of the season at Soldier Field into an eruption.
If they can pull that off, there’s no ceiling on what they might do in the postseason. No opponent would scare them at this point.
OH MY JAHDAE 🤯🤯🤯
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/LY0ur1XQUH
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 21, 2025
The Bears would clinch a playoff berth if the Lions lose to or tie the Steelers on Sunday and, at 11-4, are on the cusp of burying the 9-5-1 Packers in the division. It might finally be their time to “take the North and never get it back,” as general manager Ryan Poles said when he took the job.
No matter how bleak it has looked at times with Williams, he’s been unbelievable at the end of games. And this time, his winning heave to Moore beat Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon — the same player who snuffed out Williams’ rally at Lambeau Field two weeks earlier with an interception in the end zone to finish the game.
After completing 8-of-13 passes for 107 yards through three quarters, he finished with a flourish of 11-of-21 passing for 143 yards and two touchdowns to post a 98.9 passer rating.
Considering he played without top wide receiver Rome Odunze and talented rookie Luther Burden, and was facing a top-10 defense, that was an unforgettable performance.
The Bears rallied from down 10 with under six minutes left thanks to one of their typically improbable sequences. ESPN Analytics gave the Packers a 99.1% chance of winning with a little over three minutes left and still had them at 96.9% after the Bears got within a touchdown at the two-minute warning.
Williams pushed them to the 25-yard line for a 43-yard field goal by Cairo Santos to pull within 16-9 with 1:59 left. Santos then pulled off an onside kick when Packers wide receiver Romeo Doubs coughed up the ball and Bears special teams ace Josh Blackwell pounced on it for the recovery.
It was still a tough climb from there with the Bears starting at their own 47-yard line and the moment of truth came on fourth-and-four from the Packers’ 6-yard line.
Williams immediately had a free defensive lineman in his face, flushing him to the right, and he flung an off-balanced throw to undrafted rookie Jahdae Walker open in the right corner of the end zone for the tying touchdown with 17 seconds left.
Walker had barely played this season and had his first career catch on the opening drive.
The Packers nearly knocked out the Bears multiple times despite playing their first game without injured superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons, the trade acquisition that vaulted them to the top tier of championship favorites, and losing starting quarterback Jordan Love to a concussion in the second quarter.
Backup quarterback Malik Willis completed 9 of 11 passes for 121 yards and ran 10 times for 44 yards and appeared to have done just enough for the Packers to survive.
Even in overtime, the Packers got the ball first and were nearing field-goal range when Willis fumbled on fourth-and-one and the Bears got their shot starting at their own 36-yard line. After a couple of runs by D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, Williams took his shot, and Moore had Nixon by a step.
It was yet another scene in which the Bears looked miles ahead of where they were under former coach Matt Eberflus last season. Ben Johnson has revitalized Williams, the offense and the team’s entire mentality.
This no longer is the organization that can’t help but find a way to lose. Instead, the Bears seem like they’re never out of a game.
After an 0-2 start, Blackwell blocked what would have been the winning field goal by the Raiders for the first escape. The Bears followed with a last-second field goal to beat the Commanders, and a few weeks later won on another Williams bomb to tight end Colston Loveland.
They dodged disaster against the Giants and Vikings with back-to-back comebacks in the final minutes and got their biggest of all of them Saturday against the Packers.
After all that, how can anyone put a box around their potential in the playoffs?
The Bears still will be viewed around the league as an upstart, but Saturday felt like an arrival. The Packers are the best team they’ve beaten this season, and the Bears now control the division race heading into their final two games at the 49ers and home against the Lions.
Nothing seems impossible anymore.
