Since the year 2000, the Chicago Bears have won 189 regular season and postseason games combined, and as a lifelong Bears fan myself, each one has brought me varying degrees of joy. Now admittedly, many of these wins have begun to blur together over the years and no longer stand out in any significant way. I mean seriously, how many 20-17 wins can you watch before they start to overlap in your mind?
(The answer to that question is five… it’s the second-most common score that the Bears have won by since 2000, trailing only 27-24, which has occurred seven times.)
Today, I’ll be sorting through all 189 of those victories and settling on the 10 that carry the most weight. This was such a difficult task, I had to included an overloaded Honorable Mention that includes six additional wins as well.
So what do you say, friends? Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?
Honorable Mention
Bears 19, Titans 17 (November 14, 2004) – One of three overtimes games in NFL history that ended on a safety. Of course the mid-00s Bears would be one of those three winners.
Bears 26, Packers 0 (September 10, 2006) – A shutout win in Green Bay to begin the season in which Chicago went to the Super Bowl? This was a delightful afternoon.
Bears 37, Broncos 34 (November 25, 2007) – The Broncos learned the hard way that you best not kick (or punt) to Devin Hester.
Bears 31, Vikings 30 (September 15, 2013) – Defeating the Minnesota Vikings is nearly as sweet as getting a W over the Packers, but it’s even extra sweet when the game is won on a last second touchdown pass from Jay Cutler to Martellus Bennett.
Bears 17, Packers 13 (November 26, 2015) – In a fairly inconsequential season, it was certainly a nice surprise for Thanksgiving night to end with a belly full of turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and a Bears upset victory over the Packers.
Bears 48, Buccaneers 10 (September 30, 2018) – Also known as the day that Mitchell Trubisky looked like a football God.
10. Bears 51, Titans 20 (November 4, 2012)
Dear NFL,
It’s about time you put Peanut Tillman in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, don’t you think?
Sincerely,
Fans of the Chicago Bears
9. Bears 17, 49ers 9 (November 13, 2005)
This one is also known as the day that if there were any doubt at all, the city of Chicago earned it’s moniker as “The Windy City.” Chris Berman, take it away…
8. Bears 20, Buccaneers 19 (October 8, 2020)
There was a brief period of time during the weird COVID season in 2020 where it looked like our beloved Chicago Bears may have been the best team in the NFC, and it reached it’s zenith on a Thursday night when Nick Foles — hey, remember the Nick Foles era? — got the better of Tom Brady and the eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Khalil Mack — who finished with 2 sacks, 3 QB hits, and 2 tackles for loss — got the better of Tom Brady, Tristan Wirfs, the Buccaneers, the entire city of Tampa, and the whole Gulf of Mexico.
7. Bears 24, Packers 22 (January 5, 2025)
You wouldn’t think that a win that ended a 10-game losing streak would carry a great deal of weight on a list like this, but there’s a chance we’ll forever remember this game as the day that Caleb Williams began an 17-year-long winning streak at Lambeau Field.
All I said is there’s a chance. I even put it in italics, and I never said it was a good chance.
6. Bears 15, Rams 6 (December 9, 2018)
For context, the 2018 Chicago Bears are my favorite iteration of the franchise in my lifetime — I was negative-7 years old for the ’85 Bears — so I’ve had to temper my love for a handful of wins for this list from that wonderful, unexpectedly great season in which the Bears lost five games (playoffs included) by a total of 15 points. You’ll never convince me that they shouldn’t have gone undefeated.
On a Sunday night in December, the Bears defense dominated Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams offense in a way that very few teams ever have, and Matt Nagy even dug deep into his playbook, dialing up a touchdown pass from Trubisky to offensive lineman Bradley Sowell on a play appropriately called ‘Santa’s Sleigh.’ Tis the Season for big man touchdown dances.
T5. Bears 37, 49ers 31 (October 28, 2001) / Bears 27, Browns 21 (November 4, 2001)
A two for one special, because improbably, each of these two games, played just seven days apart, ended the exact same way… with safety Mike Brown returning an interception for a touchdown in overtime. To provide a potentially obvious answer to the question you’re likely pondering, yes, that is the only time in NFL history that’s happened. For good reason, these finishes are known as ‘The Midway Miracles.’
But telling this story and focusing only on Mike Brown’s heroics is ignoring a crucial part of the story. To even be in the position for Brown to clinch a second consecutive win, the Bears needed to overcome a 21-7 deficit at the hands of the Cleveland Browns late in the 4th quarter. In fact, it required the Bears to score a touchdown with under 30 seconds left, recover an onside kick and complete a Hail Mary just to send the game to overtime.
I’m not above saying that this team may have had a horseshoe shoved up it’s collective backside.
4. Bears 27, Seahawks 24 (January 14, 2007)
An unnecessarily dramatic Playoff game that nearly gave my father a heart attack, nearly had 14-year-old me in tears by the end of it, and nearly sent the Bears home in the Divisional Round for the third time in six years. Seattle was the defending NFC Champions and played like it in front of a raucous crowd at Soldier Field, but in the end, the Bears escaped with a three-point win in overtime thanks to the always-reliable right leg of Robbie Gould.
3. Bears 24, Cardinals 23 (October 16, 2006)
THE BEARS ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!
2. Bears 24, Packers 17 (December 16, 2018)
When you can clinch a division title, beat the Green Bay Packers and smack Aaron Rodgers around all in one afternoon, it’s a damn good day to be a Bears fan.
1. Bears 39, Saints 14 (January 21, 2007)
In the movie Major League, the movie ends after the Cleveland Indians defeat the New York Yankees to win the Division Title and earn a spot in the American League Championship Series. For five years, until the sequel came out in 1994, everyone could’ve easily imagined that Cleveland went on to win the American League Title and the World Series. It wasn’t until Major League II was released that we would find out in the film’s lore, the Indians lose in the ALCS.
Sometimes I like to imagine that the 2006 Chicago Bears season ended in similar fashion. I wish the story of that team could’ve concluded right after the Bears dominated the Drew Brees-led New Orleans Saints on a snowy Soldier Field to advance to their first Super Bowl in 21 years. Yes, that means sacrificing Devin Hester’s opening kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLI, but the rest of that game against the Indianapolis Colts gives me the sad’s. I’d rather have the happy’s thinking about this team.
Of course, this is real life and not a feature film, and as has been the case for every Bears season in my lifetime, the story doesn’t conclude with the Bears hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. But to see guys like Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Peanut Tillman, Olin Kreutz, Lovie Smith, hell, even Rex Grossman, standing on the stage in front of 60,000-plus Bears fans with snow flurries coming down on a chilly, windy afternoon in the City of Big Shoulders, that was a beautiful thing.
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