Every year I rank the Bears' top 10 plays of the season. But I didn't think that would do justice to a magical 2025 campaign that was filled with incredible, unforgettable moments. So, this year I decided to rank the top 25 plays of '25.
I'm counting down those plays this week. I covered Nos. 25-21 Monday and Nos. 20-16 Tuesday. Here's Wednesday's installment, consisting of Nos. 11-15:
No. 15
Week 6 (Oct. 13)
Jake Moody boots game-winning field goal in Washington
Elevated from the practice squad earlier in the day to replace the injured Cairo Santos, Jake Moody made 4-of-5 field-goal attempts, including a 38-yarder as time expired that gave the visiting Bears a thrilling 25-24 win on Monday Night Football.
Trailing 24-22, the defense generated its third takeaway of the game when cornerback Nahshon Wright recovered a botched handoff between quarterback Jayden Daniels and running back Jeremy McNichols at the Chicago 44 on third-and-1 with 3:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The offense then marched 36 yards on nine plays, with running back D'Andre Swift carrying five times for 34 yards, including runs of 10 and 15 yards to set up the winning kick. Caleb Williams also sustained the drive with a 6-yard completion to rookie tight end Colston Loveland on third-and-5 from the Bears' 49.
No. 14
Week 15 (Dec. 14)
Williams connects with DJ Moore for remarkable TD
Williams rolled to his right, and with a pass rusher quickly approaching, he flung the ball off balance to the back of the end zone, floating it over two defenders to a leaping Moore, who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"I would say 99% of the quarterbacks you tell them don't even waste your time looking back there and trying to make that throw," said coach Ben Johnson. "There are usually bad things that happen. Yet he's got the ability to make that throw and DJ made a heck of a play there right on the back line as well. That was one of those highlight moments there."
"If he beats the defender the way he did, you throw it and give him a chance, and that's what we did," Williams added. "He beat the corner pretty bad, and all I had to do was throw a high back five is what we call it, back of the end zone, and he went up and made a great play for us in that moment, and it was needed."
The Williams-to-Moore play was reminiscent of "The Catch," otherwise known as Joe Montana's famous 6-yard TD pass to leaping tight end Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone in the final minute of the 1981 NFC Championship Game, giving the 49ers a 28-27 win over the Cowboys at Candlestick Park.
No. 13
Week 13 (Nov. 28)
Williams hits Cole Kmet to clinch win over Eagles
Williams rolled to his left and lofted a 28-yard TD pass to Kmet to give the Bears a two-score lead at 24-9 with 6:19 to play in an eventual 24-15 Black Friday win in Philadelphia. Despite unpredictable winds that affected both teams' passing games throughout the game, Williams put perfect touch on the ball and hit Kmet in stride.
"That's the fun part about playing QB," Williams said after the Bears extended their winning streak to five. "It's dealing with the conditions and then finding ways to calculate where you need to put the ball and how much air [to put under it], especially when you have such weird gusts that we had today. It would be no wind and then random points it would be super heavy gusts. Cole ran a great route. They ended up dropping him. I just kind of saw him flash. It was something that we trusted. I saw a defender trying to catch up to him. I just wanted to lay it in there, let the wind push it back to him and Cole made a great catch."
"That throw to Cole was enormous," Johnson added. "[Williams] is rolling out to his left; to be able to throw a dime like that at that point of the game, that was really big for us."
No. 12
Week 11 (Nov. 16)
Duvernay's 56-yard kickoff return sets up winning TD
After J.J. McCarthy's 15-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jordan Addison had given the Vikings a 17-16 lead with :50 remaining, Devin Duvernay returned the ensuing kickoff 56 yards to the Minnesota 40. Duvernay's longest kickoff return of the year set up Santos' game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired.
Duvernay fielded the kickoff at his own 4, veered across the field to the right, burst through a seam and was forced out of bounds on the Bears sideline. After Swift gained nine yards on three rushes, Santos booted the game-winner.
"We absolutely needed that," Johnson said of Duvernay's return. "Kind have been waiting for one of those from him, to be honest with you. He's come really close a number of times. He was able to capture it on the bounce there and got us right there on the [cusp] of field goal range. We were just a little bit out of it, and we were able to run it just enough to feel good about our kick from there."
No. 11
Week 13 (Nov. 28)
Wright swipes ball from Jalen Hurts on tush push
In what was one of the most impressive individual efforts of the season—and likely a top five play most years—Wright ripped the ball away from Hurts on a tush push and scooped up the fumble.
The takeaway provided a huge momentum swing for the Bears, whose 10-9 lead was in jeopardy given that the fumble occurred on third-and-1 from the Chicago 12.
"They were in scoring range, it's a high percentage play for them and yet [Wright] was able to get the ball away from [Hurts]," Johnson said.
"I just went in there and tried to make a play," Wright added. "I pulled the ball out. The only reason why I dropped it is I was getting ready to spin and go score. But it came out, and I was able to get back down on it."
The Bears followed Wright's takeaway by scoring touchdowns on their next two possessions to extend their lead to 24-9 midway through the fourth quarter.
Upcoming this week:
- Thursday (plays 6-10)
- Friday (plays 1-5)
