‎Williams delivers again. Chicago has run out to an 11-4 record by winning plenty of games in thrilling fashion. The Bears have been a team overflowing with fourth-quarter juice, and even on a night in which it appeared they simply didn’t have it, a successful onside kick seemed to burst the dam, giving Soldier Field new hope and a tidal wave of energy the Bears rode to a frantic game-tying touchdown drive, complete with a magical fourth-down heave to the corner of the end zone to undrafted rookie Jahdae Walker for the night’s most important score. Just as he has in so many other crunch time situations in 2025, Caleb Williams came through in the clutch, firing rockets downfield, scrambling and avoiding crushing mistakes when there was no margin for error, and it was only right that he used his cannon for an arm to launch a perfect strike to DJ Moore, who made a fantastic contested grab to give the Bears a walk-off touchdown and an incredible victory. Sometimes in the NFL, some teams just have a magical sense about them. The Bears have that in spades, thanks in large part to their ascending signal-caller.Packers waste winning performance. For the majority of Saturday night’s contest, Green Bay was a step ahead of Chicago and largely in control of the game. When the Packers took a 10-point lead late in the third via a 33-yard touchdown pass from Malik Willis — who performed remarkably well as a sudden substitute after Jordan Love suffered a concussion — to Romeo Doubs, it seemed as if that might be enough of a margin to win. The same was true of when they pushed the lead back to 10 with 5:03 left in the fourth. Green Bay’s defense had bottled up Chicago’s offense, holding the Bears to 1 of 10 on third down in regulation before a sequence of events (that was eerily familiar to Packers fans who remember the 2014 NFC Championship Game loss in Seattle) flipped the game upside down in favor of the Bears. Jeff Hafley’s defense suddenly couldn’t stop Caleb Williams and the Bears, and even when the Packers seemed poised to take an overtime lead, a fourth-down botched snap ended their last promising opportunity. Matt LaFleur and the rest of his staff have to be dumbfounded by how they let this game — one that would have moved them a step closer to winning the NFC North — slip away from their grasp. It’s better to have happened now than in the postseason, but only if LaFleur and the Packers ensure they don’t repeat the same mistakes.Take a bow, Cairo Santos. A terribly windy night in the Windy City made air travel a treacherous endeavor for the football. Jordan Love and Caleb Williams each had passes take off in unintended directions, and every kick needed to be adjusted for gusts that gleefully pushed the ball off its intended course. This is where Santos proved essential. He properly kicked field goals into the wind, fading his attempts from the right to the left and between the uprights on three separate occasions, converting from 43, 46 and 51 yards to keep the Bears’ hopes alive. Even his game-tying extra point proved challenging, but Santos delivered. It felt right to watch the Bears — a team that once lost a playoff game on Cody Parkey’s double doink — enjoy expert-level kicking in a huge game. While he isn’t a quarterback, Santos became a hero in Chicago on Saturday night.
Next Gen Stats Insight from Packers-Bears (via NFL Pro): The Bears’ win probability was as low as 0.5% before recovering an onside kick coming out of the two-minute warning in their comeback overtime win over the Packers, making for the fifth-most improbable win in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).
NFL Research: NFL teams had lost 501 consecutive games prior to Saturday night’s Bears-Packers game when trailing by 10-plus points with under 2:00 remaining (last win was Jets vs Browns in Week 2, 2022).