Caleb Williams launched the ball from the far side of the 50-yard line. For the players on the field, and for the 60,152 fans in the stands Saturday night at Soldier Field, the ball floated seemingly forever.
“I feel like it hung in the air for maybe 10 or 15 seconds,” center Drew Dalman said.
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Added rookie tight end Colston Loveland: “It felt like slow-motion.”
One man had a different opinion of what it felt like watching the ball in the air.
“Scary,” said DJ Moore, who was beneath the ball as it came back down to earth.
The football landed perfectly in Moore’s waiting arms. The veteran receiver crumpled into a heap with Packers cornerback with Keisean Nixon draped all over him, but Moore held onto the ball for a 46-yard touchdown. Game over.
The Bears had erased a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit, converted an onside kick with less than two minutes to play, scored a tying touchdown from an undrafted rookie with 24 seconds left in the fourth quarter and then won 22-16 in overtime on a miraculous heave from their second-year quarterback.
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Inside the stadium, there was a brief instant of sheer, utter disbelief — and then there was pandemonium. Soldier Field lost its cool. The fans erupted. The players on the Bears sideline ran onto the field in a moment that most of them struggled to find the words to describe afterward.
Safety Jaquan Brisker, who wasn’t even on the field for the play, was among the first players to reach Moore where he lay in the end zone.
“Man, as soon as the ball went up, I knew it was going to be a touchdown,” Brisker said. “It’s DJ Moore. Any up ball he catches. I knew it.”
Tight end Cole Kmet, a Chicago-area native who was winless against the Packers until January, had his back to the throw as he was blocking. When he saw Moore come down with the ball, he ran to celebrate with his quarterback.
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“I’ll remember this one forever,” Kmet later said.
The quarterback himself was probably the only person who never had a doubt when he released the ball.
“I knew it was good,” Williams said.
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In a season full of dramatic finishes, this one — against the archrival Packers at home with supremacy in the division on the line — might have been the most incredible of them all.
Everything was right there for the taking Saturday night. Micah Parsons was out of the picture. Jordan Love exited the game in the second quarter with a concussion. The time to take full control of the NFC North was now.
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And then the offense sputtered for much of the night. The Bears didn’t score a touchdown until there were 24 seconds to play in the fourth quarter. They punted three times and settled for three field goals. For most of the night, it looked as if the Packers would escape with a win thanks to backup quarterback Malik Willis.
The tension ran high as time was running out. But there was no panic on the Bears bench.
“I don’t think I’ve been around a team that, when it’s this late in games, they don’t bat an eye,” coach Ben Johnson said.
This team won some miraculous games already this season. A blocked field goal in Las Vegas. A game-winning field goal from the backup kicker at Washington. A wild, shootout victory in Cincinnati. You don’t win 11 games in the NFL without winning a few close ones along the way.
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“You get some of those wins, the Raiders game, the Washington game, you start feeling it — the belief coming,” Johnson said. “This group, I’m talking about coaches and players combined, it’s just rare.”
Special teams ace Josh Blackwell recovered an onside kick with 1 minute, 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Undrafted rookie Jahdae Walker — who had never caught a pass in an NFL game before Saturday — scored the tying touchdown on fourth-and-4 from the Packers 6 in the final minute to force overtime. The Bears defense, clutch in the red zone all night, came up with a huge stop to begin overtime.
And that led to Moore’s touchdown. Johnson and Williams saw something on film this week that they thought they could take advantage of. The Bears didn’t put the play into their game plan until Thursday.
But when they ran it in practice, it worked exactly as they had hoped it would.
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“That was one that we put in and we ran in practice on Thursday and it almost looked identical to that,” Johnson said. “I thought Caleb threw a dime in practice and DJ came down with it. We were hopeful that it may or may not be there (in the game), but we timed that one up right.”
Moore had taken a big hit from Nixon earlier in the game. Nixon was the hero two weeks ago, grabbing a game-sealing interception in the final seconds of the Packers’ Week 14 win over the Bears at Lambeau Field.
As the play developed in overtime Saturday, Williams saw Nixon in one-on-one coverage against Moore. The Bears had the look they wanted, and Williams let it fly.
For Williams, that touchdown pass just might be his signature moment of the season. It’s a play that, no doubt, will be remembered in Chicago for years to come.
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“The stadium went live and blew up,” Williams said. “I’m happy for our guys, I’m happy for Chicago, I’m happy for this moment. Very grateful for it.”
The win puts the Bears in prime position to take the NFC North for the first time since 2018. The Bears (11-4) hold a 1½-game lead over the Packers (9-5-1) with two games remaining. They can clinch a playoff spot Sunday with a Detroit Lions loss or tie against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“Thrilling and amazing,” Moore said of the touchdown. “Having that walk-off here in Soldier Field, especially against Green Bay, really is amazing.”