All season long, the Chicago Bears found ways to win close games, often engineered by quarterback Caleb Williams and his game-winning drives.
All that experience paid off.
The Bears won their first playoff game in 15 seasons Saturday, coming from behind to defeat their bitter rival, the Green Bay Packers, 31-27 in the biggest postseason comeback in franchise history.
Chicago trailed the Packers 21-3 at halftime, but outscored them 28-6 in the second half, including 25-6 in the fourth quarter. Williams led his seventh fourth-quarter comeback and game-winning drive of the season, leading the Bears on a 6-play, 66-yard march to score the go-ahead touchdown with one minute and 43 seconds remaining.
“We know who we are, and we understand the situation,” Williams said on the broadcast postgame. “We’ve been one of the best, if not the best second-half team.”
Jordan Love had one final possession to lead Green Bay to victory, but his final pass from Chicago’s 28-yard line fell incomplete in the end zone as time expired.
The Bears won despite starting the game 1 of 5 on fourth down, failing to recover three fumbles by the Packers, and converting only 2 of 5 red zone opportunities for touchdowns.
The comeback began in the third quarter, when Chicago’s defense — after failing to force a punt in the first half — held Green Bay scoreless.
“We wouldn’t be 31 points without them, we wouldn’t have won this game without them,” Williams said of the defense. “We wouldn’t have won this game without that mentality coming out of the second half…Kudos to our defense and what they were able to do for us.”
Chicago finally cut into a lead with a field goal, but on its second possession of the third quarter, Williams threw an interception on fourth down after what had been a 76-yard drive.
The Bears’ defense held, however, and forced a third straight punt. Coming off the stop, the offense finally scored its first touchdown of the game on a short run by D’Andre Swift.
The Swift score seemingly woke the Packers up. Jordan Love led a 54-yard, quick-strike drive that but Green Bay back up by two scores on the ensuing possession. Brandon McManus missed the extra point, though, a kick that proved to be costly.
Following the Matthew Golden score, Williams and Chicago held serve. The Bears got back in the end zone less than three minutes later, on a drive that included perhaps the finest throw of Williams’s career — a drop-in-the-bucket sideline shot on 4th and 8.
Chicago scored five plays after the miracle conversion, adding a two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 27-24.
The Packers got the ball back with under five minutes to go, and Love led the team into scoring position. But McManus missed another kick — his second missed field goal of the game — which set the Bears up with a chance to drive for the winning score.
And it took Williams only six plays to give Chicago its first lead since the first quarter, finding D.J. Moore streaking down the left sideline for a 25-yard score.
Love had his own chance to author a storybook comeback, but Green Bay ultimately fell 25 yards short as the clock hit zero.
Williams finished only 24 of 48 for 361 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions for a 71.6 passer rating. More importantly, he recorded the eighth game-winning drive of his career and his first playoff win. It was also the Bears’ eighth win in a one-score game this season.
The victory also gave Chicago some long-overdue bragging rights over its rival from up north. In the 15 years between Bears playoff wins, the Packers have won 10. The Bears finished this season 2-1 against Green Bay — the last two of which were come-from-behind victories at home.
