GREEN BAY, Wisc. (WGN) — For the first time in weeks, The Chicago Bears showed life in the NFL’s oldest rivalry and found a way to win at the end of the ballgame.
Here’s how their final contest of the 2024-25 regular season played out.
Game Recap
It sounds like a broken record at this point, but the Bears got off to a slow start against the Packers.
Chicago went three-and-out on their first drive, cementing a season where they failed to score a touchdown on any of their 17 opening possessions. They went three-and-out on 11 of their 17 opening drives this year and by first quarter’s end, the Bears’ 27 first quarter points all season marked their lowest total for the first quarter since the NFL moved to a 16-game schedule in 1978.
Chicago’s lone saving grace of the first 15 minutes Sunday was a beautifully executed fake punt return by Josh Blackwell, who took it 94 yards to the house to give the Bears an early 7-0 lead.
Green Bay’s Brandon McManus added a 37-yard field goal on the Packers’ next possession to make it 7-3, but Chicago’s defense came through with a turnover to set up their next score.
Jaylon Johnson employed the popular peanut punch to force a Jayden Reed fumble with ten seconds left in the first quarter. TJ Edwards recovered the fumble and 43 seconds later, D’Andre Swift followed a 15-yard catch from DJ Moore with a 4-yard TD run to give Chicago a 14-3 lead.
Green Bay didn’t wait long to respond though. The Packers’ next drive went seven plays for 63 yards and was capped by a nine-yard TD run by Josh Jacobs to make it 14-10.
McManus’s second field goal of the game, a 30-yarder, made it 14-13 with 1:57 left in the second quarter.
A Keenan Allen interception (Yes, you read that right) and another Green Bay fumble marked a scoreless third quarter before the Bears expanded their lead.
Caleb Williams found Moore again, this time for a 32-yard TD pass, with a little more than ten minutes to go to make it a 21-13 ballgame.
Williams went on to finish his day 21-for-29 with 148 yards passing and one TD pass.
The Packers added nine points in the backhalf of the fourth quarter thanks to 21-yard Emmanuel Wilson TD run and McManus’s third field goal of the afternoon to take a one point lead with 55 seconds remaining.
But Williams led a fourth-quarter comeback victory for the first time in his career.
He hit Rome Odunze for a 15-yard completion then followed it up two plays later with a 4-yard scramble to move the ball to Green Bay’s 46-yard line.
Next, Chicago used their final timeout to stop the clock with 28 seconds remaining, but an illegal shift penalty on third down moved them back five yards.
It didn’t matter. Williams hit Moore for 18 yards over the middle before a mad scramble up to the line allowed the Bears rookie quarterback to spike the ball with three seconds on the clock.
“Right in the huddle, we called the first play, they called a time out,” Williams said while breaking down the last pass to Moore postgame. “I see why they called timeout. They had DJ one-on-one with no over the top help and it probably not the position you want to be in at the end of the game. I told DJ in the huddle if they press you like that again, you’ll run a vertical go ball.
“Then if they get outside leverage we’ll run a glance or a five-step and snap it off. Told him that in the huddle and he just made sure that we were on the same page so we can go and execute. Then when DJ catches it, we’ll have to run up there and clock it and then put it through the uprights. That’s what happened.”
Then Cairo Santos drilled a 51-yard field goal as time expired and the Bears walked away winners, 24-22.
For Santos, the game winner marked redemption from earlier in the season against Green Bay. He had a 48-yard game-winning field goal blocked in the two teams’ Week 11 matchup.
Chicago finishes the regular season 5-12 with the win, while Green Bay drops to 11-6.
It’s the Bears’ first win since Week 6 in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars, first win against the Packers since Dec. 16, 2018 and their first win in a Sunday road game since they beat the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 26, 2021.
“Being able to have the first win of 2025, being able to have the first win since 2015 in Lambeau, being able to have the first win versus Green Bay in ten games,” Williams said. “It’s a first of a lot.”
Williams Passing Records
Williams finished his rookie season 351-for-562 (62.5%) with 3,541 yards, 20 TD passes and six interceptions.
His 20 TD passes is the most ever by a Chicago rookie quarterback. Williams’ 3,541 yards passing is the fifth-most in a single season in franchise history.
His 3.33-to-1 TD-INT ratio is tops among the 28 quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall since the beginning of the Super Bowl era.
Williams also put together the fourth-longest streak of passes without throwing a pick in NFL history (353), trailing only 2024 Justin Herbert (357), 2022 Tom Brady (399) and 2018 Aaron Rodgers (402) while also shattering the NFL rookie record previously held by 2019 Kyler Murray (211).
NFL Draft Positioning
With the Bears beating Green Bay and the New Orleans Saints losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Chicago may be sliding back one spot in draft positioning.
According to Chicago Sports Network’s Alex Shapiro, whether the Bears stay at pick nine or get leap-frogged by the Saints will be determined by strength of schedule (SOS). Heading into Week 18, Chicago had a .555 SOS, while New Orleans had a .505 SOS.
Injury Tent
Green Bay suffered two significant injuries that could impact their playoff matchup at the Philadelphia Eagles next weekend.
Christian Watson and Jordan Love both left the game on the same drive in the first half and did not return.
Watson walked off the field before being taken back to the locker room with what appeared to be a knee injury. Love injured his throwing hand/elbow affecting his grip on the football.
Love was seen on the sideline with a helmet on in the second half, but Packers head coach Matt LaFleur declined to reinsert his starting quarterback.