Why would the playoffs be any different?
After six comeback wins in the regular season propelled the cardiac Bears to the NFC North title, they followed the same dramatic blueprint in Saturday night's wild card showdown against the Packers at Soldier Field.
The division champions rallied from deficits of 21-3 at halftime and 21-6 entering the fourth quarter to stun Green Bay 31-27. It was the Bears' seventh win this season in a game they trailed in the final 2:00 of regulation. It was their largest comeback of the season and the largest in the postseason in franchise history.
"We've got a group of guys, they just don't waver," said coach Ben Johnson. "The odds are stacked against us and despite the fact that we don't like that score at halftime, nobody does, nobody envisioned the first 30 minutes going that way, and yet we just keep plugging along, we keep fighting and we've proven that this year. That's who we are. That's what we do here at this point."
The Bears scored the go-ahead touchdown on Caleb Williams' 25-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore with 1:43 remaining. But the Packers advanced to the Chicago 23 with :13 to play. After a false start penalty pushed Green Bay back to the 28, Jordan Love threw an incomplete pass, leaving :07 on the clock.
On the game's final play, Love fumbled the shotgun snap, scooped it up, stepped up in the pocket and scrambled around before throwing it into the end zone, where it fell incomplete off of defensive back Kyler Gordon, preserving the incredible victory.
"I was just like, '[Darn], what a [darn] comeback," said Gordon, who returned to action after missing the last five games with an injury. "It's going down in history. Third time we've played them this season, coming back again against the odds."
It was the second time in four weeks the Bears have rallied from a double-digit fourth-quarter lead to beat the Packers on a Williams TD pass to Moore at Soldier Field. On the one Saturday night, Williams faked a receiver screen to Luther Burden III. Cornerback Carrington Valentine bit on the fake, freeing up Moore downfield.
"It was a perfect call," Williams said. "We ended up throwing a screen earlier in the game. It sets up to the same side. And then being able to have that play call that we worked for, I think, the past three or four weeks and just didn't use it in those other games, and then in the right moment at the right time coach calls it just as he does. The guys did a great job selling it. DJ made a great catch. Just put the ball out there for him to go out there, make a catch for us, and go win the game."
Williams completed 24 of 48 passes for a Bears playoff-record 361 yards with two touchdowns, two interceptions and a 71.6 passer rating. Colston Loveland caught eight passes for 137 yards and Moore had six receptions for 61 yards.
With their first postseason victory since 2010, the Bears (12-6) advanced to next weekend's Divisional Round and will host the Eagles if they beat the 49ers late Sunday afternoon or the Rams if Philadelphia loses.
On Saturday night, the Bears won the coin toss, opted to receive and took a 3-0 lead on Cairo Santos' 27-yard field goal. But the Packers responded by scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions—all on Love passes—to take a seemingly commanding 21-3 halftime lead.
In the locker room at halftime, Johnson mentioned the Patriots' Super Bowl LI victory over the Falcons in which New England rallied from a 28-3 third-quarter lead to win 34-28 in overtime. The coach had shown tape of that game to Bears players during training camp.
"That was my message to the group," Johnson said, "just reminding them that this has been done before and rather than saying, 'Woe is me' and 'Oh [shoot], we're in a hole,' 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."
"He said when we do this, it's going to be the biggest [comeback] in Bears [postseason] history, and we got it done," Loveland said. "We knew it wasn't going well, but we never skipped a beat, never lost faith in all the guys, and I'm super proud with how we bounced back."
The Bears defense opened the second half by forcing the Packers to punt on their first four possessions, including three three-and-outs. The offense responded with two Santos field goals and a D'Andre Swift touchdown to close the gap to 21-16.
After Green Bay extended its lead to 27-16 on Love's 23-yard TD pass to Matthew Golden with 6:36 to play, the Bears scored the game's final 15 points. Williams threw an 8-yard TD pass to Olamide Zaccheaus and then hit Loveland with a two-point conversion pass to close the gap to 27-24 with 4:18 remaining.
Williams sustained the drive with a spectacular individual effort on fourth-and-8 from the Chicago 43. Under heavy pressure, he rolled to his left, squared his shoulders to the line of scrimmage and found Rome Odunze for a 27-yard gain.
"I knew where the play was going and so I wanted to go in that direction with Rome," Williams said. "I didn't have enough time to be able to sit there and throw a ball in the pocket. Just honestly understanding it's fourth down, I've got to put the ball in play. Rome went and made a great catch, adjusting to the ball. I think [cornerback Keisean Nixon] was trailing him and so I put it up field a little bit. It creates an awkward angle for him and makes it a little bit easier to catch for Rome."
The Packers had a chance to extend their 27-24 lead, but Brandon McManus missed a 44-yard field goal attempt with 2:51 to play.
Williams followed by engineering a 6-play, 66-yard drive in 1:08. On third-and-4 from the Green Bay 48, he hit Swift in the right flat for 23 yards to the 25 and followed by connecting with Moore for the go-ahead TD on the next play.
"That's just an incredible job by all the people in this building—players, coaches, support staff—to do what they just did with the stakes as high as they were," Johnson said, "knowing that it's win-or-go-home at this point.
"Down 21-3 at halftime and the defense bowing up like they did in the second half with a number of three-and-outs, and the offense coming to life and finding a way to get us enough points in the fourth quarter there was a huge deal. And it's really who those guys are now at this point."
At no point Saturday night did the Bears feel that they were out of the game.
"We've got the belief and faith," Williams said. "That was something coach brought up in the locker room [at halftime]. There have been teams in this situation. We've been in this situation all year, and that's the frustrating part because we're such a good team and [have] such great coaches and players.
"But to be in those situations and to come out victorious, it's no fluke. It's not, 'Oh, this happened, we're lucky.' We've done it multiple times this year. We've proven to be a great second-half team. You can't get behind every game. You can't have the miscues, so we're going to go back and fix it. But if the game comes down to it, we're going to keep fighting. If it comes down to the last play, the last two minutes, I believe in us and that will keep going forever."
