Conditioned by this awful season to think the worst, Bears fans were well within their rights to believe that the team was going to do them unspeakably wrong as Sunday’s game against the Packers progressed.
Interim head coach Thomas Brown had already experienced his regularly scheduled brain freeze in the fourth quarter, and the Packers had already taken a late lead at Lambeau Field. The only question was how the Bears were going to lose their 11th straight game this season and their 12th straight game against Green Bay.
The damnedest thing is that the damnedest thing didn’t happen.
Cairo Santos didn’t have a game-winning field-goal attempt blocked, the way he did on the final play of a 20-19 loss to the Packers on Nov. 17.
The Bears didn’t find a strange way to lose a strange game, the way they did so many times in this dreadful season.
The game didn’t end with the Bears trying to explain their inherent Bear-ness, as it so often did in 2024.
In a season that had many head-scratching moments, this moment might make the least sense of all: The Bears somehow beat the Packers 24-22, thanks to Santos’ 51-yard field goal with no time left.
If you're having trouble grasping it, you’re not alone.
With 48 seconds left in the game and the Bears down 22-21 following Brandon McManus’ 55-yard field goal for Green Bay, karma decided to stop laughing at the team from Chicago. On the first play from scrimmage, the Packers’ Kingsley Enagbare was called for a horse-collar tackle on quarterback Caleb Williams. There was life and something resembling hope. The big play was Williams’ 18-yard completion to DJ Moore to put the team in field-goal range, but it wasn’t the play that had been sent into the huddle. With the Bears out of timeouts, the idea was to throw a pass to the right sideline and get out of bounds.
But Williams told Moore that if the Packers pressed the receiver at the line, he was going to hit him over the middle. Done and done. The Bears then were able to get to the line of scrimmage in time for Williams to spike the ball and stop the clock with three seconds left. Many of you probably can recite every instance of clock management mismanagement this season. This wasn’t that.
Santos then did what he meant to do in November at Soldier Field.
It was seamless, flawless and, given the trials of the season, absurd. The cavalry had arrived, and stunningly, the soldiers weren’t seated backward on their saddles.
“Pure joy and excitement,’’ tight end Cole Kmet said of the ending.
Let the Bears have their day. They ran a trick play on a punt that completely fooled the Packers and led to a 94-yard return by Josh Blackwell. They recovered two fumbles. They won in thrilling fashion. Fun, fun, fun.
OK, back to reality.
The victory had very little meaning, other than the rare stab in the heart to the sworn enemy, which, by the way, is headed to the playoffs. The Bears organization remains a mess. George McCaskey is still the chairman. Kevin Warren is still the president. Ryan Poles is still the general manager. The Bears still desperately need a good head coach.
Though happy with Sunday’s result, Williams talked afterward about the need for him and the team to make a “monumental jump’’ in the offseason. As he rightly pointed out, that will involve change. What, exactly, does that mean?
“Having the right people here, whether it’s in the locker room, whether it’s the people upstairs, the coaches, whatever the case may be, just having the right people overall.’’ he said. “... From there you can grow.’’
They won’t be growing with Brown, who picked up the baton of bizarre from his predecessor, Matt Eberflus, by making strange in-game decisions that were obvious only to him. On Sunday, he opted for a two-point conversion attempt after Moore’s touchdown gave the Bears a 20-13 lead in the fourth quarter. Fine as that goes. Pleasantly aggressive. Even better, the Packers were called for defensive holding on the conversion attempt, moving the Bears one yard closer to the goal line.
That’s when Brown decided to send out his kicking team for the extra point.
One question begged an immediate response: Say what?
Asked about the decision afterward, Brown said something about his belief in the Bears’ defense. It wasn’t within a mile of an explanation for flip flopping on a decision, his second in five games as interim head coach, but, whatever. It’s over. A season of odd decisions and occurrences is thankfully over.
The oddest occurrence, the Bears beating the Packers in Lambeau, happened. I’m still not sure how.
