LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The post-victory locker room video has become a centerpiece of this surprisingly uplifting Chicago Bears season, giving a rapacious fan base a glimpse behind the curtain.
You know the drill by now. Every team does something like this, sacrificing a modicum of privacy for a slice of the attention economy. In 2018, the last enjoyable Bears season, fans salivated over those “Club Dub” videos. Remember Matt Nagy detonating those “booms”?
This season, fans got introduced to Ben Johnson’s “Good, better, best.” Often, the videos let you know how the team really feels, which isn’t always what it says in public. Johnson might say it was just another game in a news conference, but when he’s ripping off his shirt and jumping around, you know what’s going on under that cap.
After Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns, the behind-the-scenes video shows linebacker D’Marco Jackson getting a game ball for his game-changing interception of Shedeur Sanders. He quickly acknowledged what was on his mind.
“Hey, man, I’m proud of how we came out here and executed, but I ain’t going to lie to you, bruh,” Jackson said to his teammates (and the camera). “I still got a bad taste in my mouth from last week, bruh. We got to get our get-back versus them boys next week.”
No one can say the Bears overlooked Cleveland, not with the 28-point beatdown they put on them, but it’s obvious they were still bothered by losing 28-21 at the Green Bay Packers the week before. They didn’t just put that loss in the back of their minds. Not with a rematch coming this week. It’s been stewing.
.@CALEBcsw is talking with the media https://t.co/3zQ3X73OQQ
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 16, 2025
Both after the game and Tuesday at Halas Hall, Caleb Williams used the phrase “let them off the hook” to describe the team’s collective feeling about losing to the Packers at Lambeau Field. He doesn’t have to wait long for the rematch, which comes Saturday night at Soldier Field.
“Yeah, I’m excited,” he said. “Ended up obviously throwing the pick, as everybody knows, in those last moments, and kind of let them off the hook, throwing such a bad ball to Cole (Kmet). I’m definitely excited. I’m excited for the moment. They’re coming here, and it’s another game for us. But I’m excited.”
I think Caleb is excited. I think everyone is excited about this game.
“I’m glad Caleb didn’t like how the last one ended,” Johnson said Monday. “None of us should; no one likes to lose. The only way you can shake that feeling is to look to stack more victories. That’s our intent.”
Bears-Packers Week always brings a little extra juice, and this year it’s imbued with an actual sense of purpose.
“There doesn’t need to be much of a message here this week,” Johnson said Tuesday. “They know. They know what’s at stake.”
The Bears (10-4) need to win to make the playoffs. Maybe it’s one game, maybe it’s two. But whether it’s this week, next week or in the first week of January, they need to do a little more to get into the postseason for the first time since 2020.
Two things need to happen this weekend for the Bears to clinch a berth. They need to beat (or tie) the Packers, and the Detroit Lions have to lose to the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers. The latter might be difficult — Detroit is a 7-point favorite — but Green Bay is vulnerable after losing Micah Parsons (among other injured players) last week in a loss to the Denver Broncos. The Packers are still favorites (-1.5 as of Tuesday night), but not overwhelmingly so.
Given all the similarities at play to the Bears’ last winning season in 2018, it fits that it was also the last time the Packers lost in Chicago. And that was a clinching scenario, too.
Yes, it was seven years ago Dec. 16, when the Bears last clinched the NFC North with a 24-17 win over their rivals at Soldier Field. That was the era of Nagy and Mitch Trubisky, Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks. The vibes around that team were pretty much the same as they are now. The city was in love.
And though that success quickly fell apart, beginning with the “Double Doink,” and Green Bay proceeded to win every matchup with the Bears from 2019 until last season’s season finale, maybe that’s in the past and the rivalry will become competitive again. That’s the story we’re telling ourselves, and who knows, maybe this time it’s true.
Certainly, the Bears are talking like the aggressors these days. It’s a welcome change, but without results, it’s just chatter, like Bears fans yelling “Green Bay sucks” when it’s just not true.
More than any Packers game since the 2010 NFC Championship Game, the Bears need to win this one to prove they’re ready to be a legit playoff team. After coming close two weeks ago, can the Bears turn that experience into fuel for the rematch? They’re certainly exuding confidence.
“I had an academic adviser, we called him ‘Cheech’ at Clemson, and he loved the Packers,” Bears defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “He loved the Packers, so obviously that meant he hated the Bears. … Playing for the Bears now, I can’t wait to go out there, put that best foot forward. I’m going to give old Cheech a call and say, ‘How you like that?’”
Well, I emailed with “Cheech,” Clemson Hall of Famer Wayne Coffman, who retired as the director of football academics a decade ago. He’ll be waiting by his phone.
“Grady is my favorite Clemson player I advised and I love him,” Coffman wrote, “but it’s Go Pack Go!”
Coffman said he will be watching the game with his Packers fan friends in Clemson. He said he expects a physical, tough game. And though South Carolina weather sounds nice right about now, it’s too bad he’s not coming up to Chicago.
Saturday night. Soldier Field. Bears vs. Packers. Late December. Jordan Love vs. Caleb Williams. It sounds like a can’t-miss game.
“It’s what you play football for,” Jarrett said. “It’s what you dream about. The opportunity to play prime-time football, rivalry game, playoff implications, seeding implications. I mean, you can’t stack up, you’ve got two prime QBs, two really good defenses. You can’t ask for a better moment. I’m excited to be a part of it.”