CHICAGO — Caleb Williams had already thrown for 361 yards and two touchdowns.
He completed a Hall-of-Fame-reel 27-yard pass to Rome Odunze on fourth-and-8 in the fourth quarter and a go-ahead 25-yard touchdown throw to DJ Moore with 1:43 left in the game of his life (so far).
Williams had done his part, and then some, to deliver yet another magical comeback in a season rich with them. And now he stood on the sidelines with no way to help. The Bears’ defense, which was riding a rollercoaster of a night, had to hold Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers one last time. What was going through that head of his?
“Pure belief,” he said. “That’s all you need.”
“Belief” is a word the Bears have used often to describe what has gone on this season. They had six fourth-quarter comebacks in the regular season en route to a surprising 11-6 record and NFC North title. And now, facing their greatest rival on one of football’s biggest stages, the defense needed to finish off one more drive. In years past, this is when Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers or Love would stick a dagger in the collective heart of this city. It was when the Bears’ defense would collapse, and Randall Cobb would race 48 yards for a touchdown.
But this time, Green Bay reached the Bears’ 23-yard line, and then, after a penalty and three incompletions, the clock struck zero. And it was the Bears who made believers of us all with a 31-27 playoff victory.
It was the franchise’s first postseason win since a wild-card game in 2010 and their biggest win over Green Bay since, uh, Pearl Harbor.
“And the movie continues,” backup quarterback Tyson Bagent said in the post-game locker room.
Or as the saying goes: absolute cinema.
“That’s the story of the Chicago Bears, the cardiac Bears,” safety Kevin Byard III said.
Football is a game of will, and while I’m pretty sure there are better teams still playing, I’m not sure there’s a more mentally resilient one than these Bears.
“I think it’s our identity here at this point,” coach Ben Johnson said. “Some people say it’s not sustainable. I don’t know.”
Sometimes, for some teams, this is just how the season goes. Usually, it’s not the Bears. This year, it is. And that brings us back to the B-word.
“I think belief is everything,” Odunze said. “It’s the NFL and every team is very talented and every team will come in on any given Sunday. So belief is a major factor, knowing that regardless of what the score is, if there’s still time on the clock, there’s an opportunity to go win the football game. And I think we’ve embodied that this season. I’m sure there’ll be more of that coming down the stretch on our way to the Super Bowl, so I’m excited to play those games as well.”
Yes, he said Super Bowl before the Bears even knew who their divisional opponent would be. We’re talking about belief, right?
We’ve seen a lot of crazy things with this Bears team this season, and this game topped them all. They trailed 21-3 at halftime. Johnson was looking like a national punchline with his over-aggressive fourth-down calls. The defense was a sieve. Nothing was working. It was the same ol’ story in a one-sided rivalry.
But in the home locker room, Johnson had a message to deliver.
“We came in here at halftime and Ben said what needed to be done,” Bagent said. “He said that if we were able to do it, it could be a legendary moment for the city. And as you can see, that’s what we went out and did.”
“He said we’re going to have the greatest comeback in Bears history,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “I think we did.”
Kmet grew up here as a frustrated Bears fan. Johnson is his fourth head coach. If anyone knows how to separate the BS from the truth, it’s Kmet. He didn’t need much convincing from his coach that it was possible.
“It’s not like we haven’t done this all year,” Kmet said. “You know what I mean?”
We do. Odunze described Johnson’s demeanor at halftime as both calm and intense. Johnson had laid the foundation for this comeback-laden season during training camp when he made the team watch the New England Patriots’ epic win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. He had Grady Jarrett, who played for the Falcons, and Joe Thuney, then of the Patriots, speak about their experiences in that game.
Caleb Williams, right, got the better of Jordan Love and the Packers, again. (Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
Johnson looked like he was panicking in the first half. When he spoke to the team, though, his message exuded confidence.
“Rather than saying woe is me and crap, we’re in a hole, it was more, this is a great opportunity for us to turn this thing around into a game that we’ll never forget, and that’s what they did,” Johnson said.
“The only option we had was to go out there and be legendary, go out there and execute, and go out there and do our part on the offensive side, defensive side, and special teams,” Williams said. “Go win the f-ing game.”
In the first half, the Packers scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and missed a long field goal to go into halftime. They punted four straight times to open the second half. What was the difference?
“Fight,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “That was the message, really, all along the sideline. We had our back against the wall the whole game. It was just about fight.”
But it took until the beginning of the fourth quarter for Chicago actually to score a touchdown.
D’Andre Swift’s 6-yard touchdown run capped off a 66-yard drive and cut Chicago’s deficit to 21-16. The play came about seven minutes after news broke that the Cubs signed Alex Bregman to a five-year, $175 million deal, so some might say Cubs president Jed Hoyer inspired the win. (Hoyer wouldn’t comment on the Bregman deal, but he did correctly predict the Bears’ comeback to me.)
Green Bay quickly scored again, but Brandon McManus missed the extra point, which turned out to be huge as the Bears matched with another touchdown drive and a 2-point conversion that made it 27-24. On the ensuing Packers drive, McManus missed a 44-yard field goal. Belief is great and all, but a little help doesn’t hurt.
On third-and-4 from the Green Bay 48, Williams found Swift for a 23-yard catch-and-run and then hit Moore on the other side of the field for a perfect 25-yard touchdown pass. It turned out to be Moore’s second game-winner over the Packers in as many games.
The Bears know they need to play better offensively in the first halves of games. But they’re not apologizing for the ways they’re winning late.
“That’s really when we’re at our best,” Johnson said. “So we’ll keep striving to be better earlier in games and starting faster and all that. … I just can’t be any more proud of this crew than I am right now.”
Chicago agrees. In the fourth quarter, Soldier Field was an absolute madhouse with 60,000-plus waving towels, chewing fingernails, frothing at the mouth and … grating cheese?
HERO pic.twitter.com/LXx5qAw7px
— Lauren Comitor (@laurencomitor) January 11, 2026
The foam cheese-grater hat that Moore made famous after the Bears’ overtime win over Green Bay in Week 16 is now a part of Bears fans’ wardrobes. And this team is taking a particular delight in shutting up and shutting down their rivals. Green Bay had won 11 in a row over Chicago before Week 18 last season. Now, the Bears have won back-to-back.
“There was probably a little bit more noise coming out of their building up north to start the week, which we heard loud and clear, players and coaches alike,” Johnson said to reporters after the game. “This one meant something to us.”
He was a little more colorful in the post-game locker room.
Not. Done. Yet. pic.twitter.com/0rq2ZMPIQC
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) January 11, 2026
“F— the Packers,” Johnson yelled to his players’ delight.
Johnson fired the first salvo during his introductory press conference when he bragged about how much he enjoyed beating Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur twice a year while in Detroit. That’s two wins this season, too.
Johnson and his players have further endeared themselves to Chicago’s long-suffering fans by not only recognizing what it means to beat the Packers, but actually beating them.
“Yeah, they wanted us, that’s what I heard,” Williams said. “They wanted it, they got it.”
Chicago has wanted a Bears team like this for a very long time. And now they have it. After so many years and so many losses, you can believe in the Bears again. And we’ve learned this season, belief is everything.