No one would want to trade places with the Bears when they were down 21-3 to the rival Packers at halftime Saturday night. Ben Johnson was sure of that, and told his players as much.
If the Bears could find a way to do the impossible, though, no one would forget them, either.
Johnson told the Bears that they were “going to have the greatest comeback in Bears history,” tight end Cole Kmet said.
“And we did,” he said.
At the least, it was the biggest postseason comeback in franchise history. The Bears rallied for 25 points in the fourth quarter and beat the Packers, 31-27.
“Rather than saying, ‘Woe is me’ and ‘Oh, crap, we’re in a hole,’” Johnson said, “it’s more, ‘This is a great opportunity for us to turn this around into a game we’ll never forget.’
“And that’s what they did.”
The Bears’ first postseason win in 15 years was the largest playoff comeback victory since the Jaguars rallied to beat the Chargers in 2022.
Quarterback Caleb Williams said that the “only option we had was to go out there and be legendary” in the second half.
“Go out there and execute, and go out there and do our part on the offensive side, defensive side, and special teams,” he said. “Have each other’s back. Go win the [bleeping] game.”
Johnson told his team the only way to do it would be one play at a time.
“You’ve got no other choice,” Johnson said. “You’re not going to get it all back all in one shot. Yeah, just keep plugging along.”
Johnson wanted to preach emotional toughness to the Bears during training camp. He decided to show them a copy of Super Bowl LI. Nine years ago, the Falcons led the Patriots 28-3 and lost, 34-28, in overtime.
Bears guard Joe Thuney played for those Patriots, and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett for the Falcons. Jarrett told the Sun-Times during training camp that, as much as he didn’t want to relive the loss, “unspoken-about history repeats itself.”
In the locker room at halftime, Johnson recalled Super Bowl LI, which remains the NFL’s greatest playoff comeback outside of the wild-card round.
“Just reminding them that this has been done before,” he said.
He did so with intensity, receiver DJ Moore said, telling the Bears that they “need to get our stuff together and go out like we play — Bears football.”
They did. A defense that gave up three touchdowns in the first half forced a punt on the Packers’ first four possessions of the second half. An offense held to three first-half points scored 28 in the second.
The Bears were trailing by 11 when they took over with 6:36 to play. Four plays later, they were on the verge of elimination. On fourth-and-three, center Drew Dalman was flagged for a false start to move the Bears back five yards. On fourth-and-eight, Williams rolled to his left, jumped like a second baseman turning a double play and flung a pass down the left sideline to receiver Rome Odunze, who had turned his route back toward the line of scrimmage.
Odunze caught the pass and was shoved out of bounds for a 27-yard gain.
“He was, like, floating on that one throw to Rome,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “When he hit that, we were like, ‘We’re winning this game.’”
And they did, just as Johnson said they could.
“He kept it real … ” right tackle Darnell Wright said. “He said nobody wants to be in this position, but we have a chance to be part of one of the greatest games in Chicago Bears history.”
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