February 5, 2017. The Atlanta Falcons led 28-3 midway through the third quarter of Super Bowl LI against the New England Patriots. Game over. But Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had other ideas. With Brady leading, the Patriots mounted the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, winning 34-28 in overtime. Cut to 2025, and that impossibility became a blueprint that Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson laid out for his team to follow. 

Ben wasn’t just drawing plays during the Bears’ training camp; he was engineering belief. The first-year head coach showed his team the full Patriots-Falcons game. Every excruciating minute of Atlanta’s collapse and New England’s resilience.

“The one thing that we had done during training camp was we had shown the film of the Atlanta and New England game,” Johnson explained in a presser. “We have two players on our roster that were part of both those teams. Grady [Jarett] was with Atlanta, and Joe Thuney was with New England, and it was just great to get perspective from both of those players of how that game went down. I think it’s just a good lesson to be learned that it’s 28 to 3 in the middle of the third quarter and yet you know the game’s still being played, and there’s a lot of time left.”

Thuney and Jarett both addressed the team about their experiences: the agony and the ecstasy of the same historic moment. The lesson was simple. A game isn’t over until the clock reads 00:00.

“That was my message to the group,” Johnson continued. “Just reminding them that this has been done before, and rather than saying ‘woe is me’ and ‘oh crap we’re in hole’, it’s more: ‘this is a great opportunity for us to turn this thing around into a game that we’ll never forget’ and that’s what they did.”

Trailing 21-3 at halftime against the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card at Soldier Field, that belief became a reality. Ben Johnson even hammered the point home at halftime to get their goal back in focus. As Bears tight end Cole Kmet recalled post-game, Johnson had said, “We’re gonna have the greatest comeback in Bears history.” And that’s exactly what they did.

Their offseason mental prep collided with execution. The Bears became the fourth team ever to win a playoff game after trailing by 15-plus points entering the final frame. The last team to do that? The Patriots in Super Bowl LI. And the Bears’ comeback was just as dramatic.

Ben Johnson’s vision: the fourth quarter explosion

Soldier Field was teetering on the edge of heartbreak when the second half began. The Bears’ kicker, Cairo Santos, lined up from 34 yards out and drilled a field goal. 21-9, but there was still a mountain to climb.

On the Bears’ next drive, running back D’Andre Swift took the handoff, ran left, planted his foot hard, and exploded back through the gap like he’d been launched from a cannon. Defenders grabbed nothing but air as he crossed the goal line from six yards out. Santos added the extra point to make it 21-16, and Soldier Field erupted. Chicago was still down five, but the momentum had shifted.

But Green Bay wasn’t going quietly after holding on to the lead for so long. Quarterback Jordan Love hit receiver Matthew Golden for 23 yards and a touchdown. But then kicker Brandon McManus stepped up for the extra point and pushed it wide left. Instead of being down 12, the Bears now trailed by 11 with 6:36 left on the clock. And they were hungry.

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Fourth-and-8 from Chicago’s 43-yard line, season hanging by a thread, Caleb Williams showed everyone why he was the first overall pick last season. The Bears quarterback took the snap as defenders collapsed the pocket. He spun right to buy time, then jumped backward off one leg to avoid the rush. While literally falling through the air, he fired a missile downfield. Wideout Rome Odunze hauled it in 27 yards later, and the sideline went berserk.

Williams then found receiver Olamide Zaccheaus from 8 yards out for the touchdown, and then hit tight end Colston Loveland for a two-point conversion. A 27-24 field goal game with pure pandemonium building on the field. Packers’ McManus got a chance at redemption from 44 yards with 2:56 left to put it away. But he missed, and Chicago got one more shot, and that was all they needed.

Williams took over at his own 34 and moved his team methodically into scoring range, each play bringing Soldier Field closer to delirium. At the Packers’ 25, he dropped back, pump-faked to throw the defenders off, then looked left. Wide receiver DJ Moore was running free down the sideline, Williams lofted it perfectly, and Moore caught it in stride, running into the end zone untouched. Santos nailed the extra point. 31-27 Bears, and the Packers couldn’t do anything but fumble their last chance.

After this historic comeback, Ben Johnson just had three words to say to his team in the locker room, and they were all for it: “F*** the Packers.” Chicago now moves on to the divisional round, while the Packers face yet another postseason slipping away right at the start.