Inside the Bears’ wild comeback win over the Packers in OT

CHICAGO — When Chicago Bears kicker Cairo Santos converted a 43-yard field goal attempt into the swirling winds of Soldier Field with 1:59 left in the fourth quarter Saturday night, the Green Bay Packers had a 16-9 lead and a 96.9% chance of winning the key NFC North battle.

At that point, Santos had provided the Bears’ only points on three kicks, but it was his next kick that proved to be a game-changer.

It wasn’t that his onside kick was remarkable, it’s just that it wasn’t handled by Packers receiver Romeo Doubs, and Bears cornerback Josh Blackwell recovered.

At that point, the Packers’ win percentage had dipped to 86.9%, and considering how stagnant the Bears’ offense had been for nearly four quarters, there was no reason to believe in a miracle comeback.

Except that the Bears have lived dangerously all season. Entering the game, they had five wins this season after trailing in the final 2:00 of the fourth quarter, tied with the 2011 Broncos and 2016 Lions for the most such wins in a season since the 1970 merger.

«We’re never out of it,» Blackwell said. «Guys on the sideline were like — we’re fine. We’re going to score right here, get an onside kick, score again and we’ll win.»

D’Marco Jackson: «In my vision, I just seen [Doubs] fumble it, and just a rush to the ball. Then I see ‘Black’. I see him just slide right in, and I just try to cover him, get everybody off of him, just to keep him with the ball.»

Blackwell: «It went through his arms more or less and I was just there to just jump on him.»

Doubs: «S—, I missed it. That’s just this game, bro. I rep this s— all week and yeah, bro, somebody gotta be responsible and I’m willing to take on 1000% of it.»

Packers safety Javon Bullard: «That’s a grown man taking responsibility. Of course we all could’ve done something better. We could’ve blocked our guys better. It wasn’t perfect.»

Packers coach Matt LaFleur: «I just saw the ball, I’m watching the ball the whole time. You know, as far as, was it blocked well enough? I’d have to go back and watch the tape, but I thought we had an opportunity to field the ball. We just didn’t field the ball.»

Bears DE Daniel Hardy: «I’m still kind of in shock a little bit just how all this went down, but I got off the ball, did my job, and that was to go run through somebody’s face. And after I did that, I saw the ball in the air, and I saw it fall into the hands of the returner, and then I saw him bobble it. So I tried to jump on the returner.

«I think I landed on his legs or something, and somebody else landed on top of his body, and then the ball was loose on the ground. Somebody, obviously ‘Black,’ jumped on it and was fighting on the bottom of the pile. I didn’t really see who had it at the time, but I heard him. And obviously the ref is standing right there, so I’m going to yell, Bears ball! And then they popped out of the huddle with the ball, and it was just crazy.»

Jackson: «The crowd got into it. It was just a game-changing play for us, like, kept us in the game, kept us alive. So, man, shout out to ‘Black’ for that one.»

Hardy: «Cairo got every kick in the book. So for anybody listening, just prepare yourself. I’m not sure I’m at liberty to share [which type of kick that was.]. Just know that’s the onside recovery kick. That’s what we’ll call it.»

Jackson: «I ain’t going to lie. I just believe in this team. Like, it’s crazy, like, how things fall our way and just, we living on the right side.»

Final (OT) – Bears 22, Packers 16 📉

The @ChicagoBears’ win probability was as low as 0.5% before recovering an onside kick coming out of the two-minute warning (trailing 16-9 w/2 timeouts). This is the 5th-most improbable win in the NGS era (since 2016).

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— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) December 21, 2025

Hardy: «We practice onside kicks every Friday. It’s just guys being keyed in on details, being locked in and wanting to win more than the dudes on the other side… [Richard Hightower] HT has us coached up well, and I think we’re the best special teams unit in the country.»

Kevin Byard: «As soon as that happened, I took me back to the Cincinnati game [the Bears won on a last-second TD pass to Colston Loveland]. I just knew we was gonna win. It was destiny.»

Williams connected with Loveland on a six-yard pass, and then threw two incompletions, setting up a fourth-and-four at the Packers’ 6 with 24 seconds remaining. The Packers had an 80.3 win percentage as Williams started to scramble and heaved a high ball to a wide-open Jahdae Walker, whose second career catch was a game-saving touchdown. Santos’ PAT made it 16-16. The Bears sacked Malik Willis — subbing for an injured Jordan Love — with 17 seconds left in the fourth, sending the game into overtime.

Williams: Jahdae’s my guy — when he first got here, I allowed him to stay at my house a little bit until he found a spot. We’ve gone in the indoor [facility] and worked out. Just being able to build that connection with him for moments like this. He goes out there, makes the plays and he’s in the right spot. The ball will find him and that’s what happened on that play.»

Bears OT Darnell Wright: «​[Jahdae] is so funny. He’s one of the funniest guys. Just like every day at practice, he’s like a kid almost. He’s just so happy to be out there. He’s just always with a smile. So he gives a lot of energy to everybody, and a big play by him tonight as well.»

Bears WR DJ Moore: «I loved it man, you put that in our rookie’s hands at the end of the game and sent us to overtime. I loved it. He was ready for it.»

Packers CB Nate Hobbs:»Oh yeah, it was just miscommunication. That’s all.»

LaFleur: «It was zero blitz, yeah. So obviously somebody let their man go.»

Blackwell: «I love that for Jahdae. He’s a hell of a player and he loves football. I mean, we all love football, but you can see it on his face and he’s a little kid on the playground outside at practice and he deserves that. He’s worked his ass off and for him to have that moment in this crowd, this moment, it was incredible for him.»

Before the first Packers- Bears game two weeks ago, team captain Byard said he sought out Harry Freid, Chicago’s director of research and analysis. Byard handles Chicago’s coin tosses and after several confusing overtime coin toss handlings this season around the NFL due to the new regular season overtime rules, he wanted to study up.

Byard: «I went to Harry, and I said, Hey, man, can you kind of walk me through all the overtime stuff, defer or to kick? He kind of just basically told me, like, hey, you know, obviously in overtime, there is no defer, because you basically only kick the ball, there’s no defer, there’s no second half. But right before the overtime, I remember I walked up to Ben and asked him, like, Hey, we’re kicking, right? Just make sure, like, we’re all good with it. And he was like, ‘Yeah, man, we’re kicking. Go get a stop.'»

Byard was surprised his team got to overtime at all Saturday night, given his head coach’s aggressive tendencies.

Byard: «Honestly, [kicking the PAT] was a little bit surprising to me. Obviously, we didn’t talk about it but we was on the sideline, like, just kind of talking amongst each other, like, if we score right here, we’re going for two, we’re going for the win! Man, I think [Ben] just put his trust in the defense that we was gonna go get a stop. No, like I said, Iit was surprising, because Ben is usually aggressive in those situations. But like I said, he must have known knew something. It helped us out for sure.»

After a short return in OT, the Packers had a first-and-10 at their own 21. One play later, Willis hit Jayden Reed for 31 yards to the Bears’ 45. Then on fourth-and-one, Willis fumbled the snap and the Bears took over on downs.

Willis: «Just a miscommunication between me and [center Sean Rhyan]. He wasn’t expecting me to change up the cadence, but the clock got low and I was just trying to hurry up and get a snap. So we’re just a little off timing, off kilter there. That’s on me.»

Jackson: «So, you know, we had to make adjustments with the change of quarterback. We knew he was more athletic than Jordan. But I mean, that was a huge stop by TJ [Edwards] to make them go for it and then that fourth down stop to give our offense the ball and have a chance to go drive it.»

Byard: «He bobbled the snap, and then the running back picked it up … and listen, this team is special. Just talking in the locker room like, this doesn’t happen often. The amount of games we’re able to win in the fourth quarter … so much of the improbable happened tonight, the onside kick, that play, and then DJ with the game-winning touchdown.

«I’m just so happy and proud to be a part of the group, because I just understand that this stuff doesn’t happen that often.»

The Bears took over at their own 36 with a 54.6 win percentage. An incompletion followed by two runs set up Chicago first-and-10 at the Packers’ 46. That’s when Ben Johnson called a play the team installed on Thursday. Williams fired a perfect laser to Moore — it covered 56.9 yards per Next Gen Stats — who was covered by Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon as he hauled in the pass in the end zone for the walk-off TD. It was Williams’ league-leading sixth fourth-quarter comeback win and he became the only Bears QB in history to throw a TD pass in the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter and in OT, according to ESPN Research.

Bullard: «They just made a good throw and catch. That’s all-out coverage. That’s an all-out blitz, man. He ran a route that ran away from him. That’s just football. That ain’t on Kei. That ain’t on nobody. That’s the playcall, good throw and catch. Kudos to them.»

Williams: «I knew it was good. You got that belief, you got that confidence, you got that swagger as an offense, you practice well, you hit plays like that in practice. It was pretty identical to practice and when the play gets called and the moment comes up like that, it’s time to go hit it, it’s time to go in the game.»