The Bears concluded a magical regular season with a 19-16 loss to the Lions Sunday at Soldier Field, but the NFC North champions secured the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with Philadelphia's 24-17 home defeat to Washington.
As a result, the Bears (11-6) will open the postseason by hosting the seventh-seeded Packers (9-7-1) in the wild card round of the playoffs Saturday at 7 p.m. (CT) at Soldier Field.
As they have done all season, the Bears rallied Sunday against Detroit. Trailing 16-0 entering the fourth quarter, they scored touchdowns and added two-point conversions on back-to-back possessions to tie the game 16-16.
The Bears closed the gap to 16-8 as Caleb Williams rifled a 25-yard TD pass to Jahdae Walker and Kyle Monangai followed with a two-point conversion run. The touchdown enabled Williams to eclipse Erik Kramer's single-season franchise passing record of 3,838 yards set in 1995. Williams finished the season with 3,942 passing yards.
After the defense forced the Lions to punt, Williams capped a 12-play, 88-yard drive with a 1-yard TD pass to Colston Loveland in the back of the end zone. Williams followed by connecting with Cole Kmet on a two-point conversion pass, tying the score 16-16 with 5:25 remaining in the fourth quarter.
With the Lions in field goal range at the Chicago 35, Jared Goff's deep pass over the middle intended for Amon-Ra St. Brown on third-and-20 was deflected by Jaquan Brisker and intercepted by Kevin Byard III at the 5.
On Detroit's next possession, Goff's 26-yard pass to St. Brown set up Jake Bates' game-winning 42-yard field goal as time expired, giving Detroit a 19-16 victory.
About 10 minutes later, the Commanders held on for a win over the Eagles, giving the Bears the No. 2 seed and setting up a wild card matchup with the Packers.
The longtime rivals met twice in a 13-day span last month, with the Packers winning 28-21 Dec. 7 in Green Bay and the Bears rallying for a 22-16 overtime victory Dec. 20 in Chicago.
"Good opponent," said coach Ben Johnson. "I think that we're fairly evenly matched. Got a lot of respect for how well they're coached. I have a lot of respect for the talent level that they have in that building and I would expect it to be another exciting game."
The Lions scored on their first three possessions of Sunday's game, taking a 13-0 lead on Bates' field goals of 34 and 30 yards and Goff's 15-yard touchdown pass to Jahmyr Gibbs. In the first half, Detroit held decisive advantages over the Bears in yards (237-69), first downs (15-4) and time of possession (19:12-10:48).
"We can't dig ourselves in a hole like that," Johnson said. "[I] was disappointed with the offense as a whole; I let the guys know that and we'll be better for it. We'll address it, we'll get those things cleaned up and we'll be better for it."
Trailing 13-0, the Bears reached the Lions' 30 late in the second quarter. But on fourth-and-3, Williams' pass intended for Loveland was broken up by linebacker Derrick Barnes, turning the ball over on downs.
"I think we came out a little flat maybe energy-wise," Williams said. "We've got to do a better job of having urgency from the jump and getting that going."
Williams said the offense's performance was "not good enough. Not good enough to win this game. Not good enough to win the upcoming game. We've got to get better."
The Bears were shut out through the first three quarters for the first time this year and recorded a season-low 270 yards, 106 yards below their average.
Asked what was responsible for the offense's outing, Johnson said: "That's a great question and that's one that we'll have to look at the tape and figure out why that was. I didn't feel like it was one of our more elaborate plans. I thought it was one of our simpler plans, and so we need to do a better job executing it and coaching it up."
On the Bears' second possession of the second half, they advanced to the Detroit 43. But after a false start, Williams' deep pass intended for DJ Moore was intercepted by cornerback Avonte Maddox in the end zone.
Bates' 25-yard field goal late in the third quarter extended the Lions' lead to 16-0 before the Bears rallied to tie the score.
Williams completed 20 of 33 passes for 212 yards with 2 TDs, one interception and an 86.9 passer rating. Loveland had a career-high 10 receptions for 91 yards and one TD.
For the Lions, Goff connected on 27 of 42 passes for 331 yards with one TD, one interception and an 86.5 passer rating. St. Brown had 11 receptions for 139 yards, including 10 catches for 110 yards in the first half.
The Bears wanted to create some momentum heading into the playoffs but will instead host the Packers looking to rebound after dropping their final two regular season games to the 49ers and Lions.
"We're quickly turning the page here," Johnson said. "Everyone's disappointed. I appreciate their effort. Some teams, they rest their starters. We don't. We play football and we felt like it was really important that we were playing our best ball today, and we didn't get that job done. So we're quickly turning that page and now we've got a home game coming up. There's a way to win this next game, and that's what we're going to be solely focused on.
"We're quickly transitioning. We're locked in. The stakes are a lot higher here going forward. We can't afford to have one of our three phases play like we did today. So we're going to have to pick it up. I get fired up just thinking about it right now, and I know our guys are too."
Asked what message he intends to deliver to his players, Johnson said: "Let them know that it's a new season, so we're starting fresh right now and if we want to make the most or our new season, we've got to go on a four-game winning streak, which we've done already twice this year."
