On Sunday night, Caleb Williams engineered a late playoff comeback that ended a 15-year drought for a Bears team long stuck in the shadow of its oldest rival, the Green Bay Packers. Understandably, the quarterback didn’t treat the moment like a usual breakthrough. Instead, he delivered a pointed message aimed straight at Green Bay, followed by a postgame moment that made sure Packers fans felt every bit of it.

“We’re here,” Williams said when asked what he would want to say to the Packers. “We’re going to be here for a while, is my plan.”

He even admitted during his postgame interview on the Amazon Prime broadcast that his frustration with the slow start early in the game helped him lead drives late in the game.

Chicago trailed 21–3 at halftime and 21–6 entering the final quarter, only to flip the game entirely with three touchdown drives in the span of just over 10 minutes. That’s when they scored 25 points to clinch a 31–27 win in front of a packed crowd of 60,338 at Soldier Field.

“They wanted us,” he added on the Packers wanting to take down the Bears. “That’s what I heard. They wanted it.”

Not to forget, this was Caleb Williams’ first playoff game. And he still managed to come through by throwing a 25-yard go-ahead touchdown pass to DJ Moore with 1:43 left on the clock. The throw came after a pump fake froze the coverage, leaving Moore uncovered near the front pylon as Williams calmly stepped into the moment. The score capped a big comeback for the Chicago Bears as they erased an 18-point deficit to defeat the Packers.

After the Packers’ loss, Caleb Williams made sure Packers fans felt the sting of defeat.

On the Amazon post-game set, Williams, Moore, and rookie Colston Loveland jumped into the viral moment. They tossed on the now-famous cheese-grater hats, drawing loud cheers from the crowd still inside Soldier Field. In fact, Williams even dropped the “Salt Bae” sprinkle. The gesture doubled as a callback to Chicago’s Week 16 win over Green Bay, when Williams and Moore first debuted the celebration, it’s one that has since become symbolic of the rivalry’s recent shift.

Notably, Williams and Moore did the same after the Week 16 win over the Packers. That probably also inspired the Baltimore Ravens to do the same a week later.

Overall, Williams is happy with how he and the team played, especially in the 2nd half.

Caleb Williams announced the Bears as the “2nd-half team.”

In the post-game conference, Caleb Williams did not sound surprised by their comeback. Instead, he sounded indifferent.

“It’s no fluke… It’s been proven for us to be a great second-half team. … If the game comes down to the final two minutes, I believe in us,” he said.

That confidence was backed by history. Before Sunday night, Chicago had already recorded six fourth-quarter comeback wins during the regular season. This marked the seventh time this year the Bears won a game after trailing in the final two minutes, something no other team in NFL history has accomplished in a single season.

It wasn’t easy getting there.

Williams finished with two touchdown passes but also had to overcome two first-half interceptions, including one near the goal line. He still threw for 361 yards on 24-of-48 passing, repeatedly pushing the ball downfield even after early mistakes. What mattered most was that Chicago never unraveled. Instead, the comeback fit neatly into a season defined by late belief rather than clean starts.

The defining sequence arrived late. Down 27–24 with 1:43 left, Williams took the field needing a touchdown. Earlier in the quarter, the Bears had already clawed back with a D’Andre Swift 5-yard rushing score, followed by an 8-yard touchdown pass to Olamide Zaccheaus and a successful two-point conversion to Colston Loveland. When the moment finally arrived, Williams delivered again, finding Moore for the game-winner and giving Chicago its first lead since the opening drive.

Green Bay still had one last chance. Jordan Love moved the Packers into Chicago territory, but on third down from the 28-yard line, a dropped snap forced a scramble and a desperation heave that was deflected by Jaquan Brisker as time expired. Soldier Field erupted as the Bears secured their first playoff victory since the 2010 postseason.

Chicago has now beaten Green Bay three times in the past five meetings, including twice this season. For a franchise that spent years on the wrong side of the matchup, the momentum finally feels different.

This rally came close to the biggest comeback in franchise history, still held by the 20-point turnaround against the Cardinals in 2006. Of course, a playoff win is still just one step. Now, it is on Williams and the Bears to prove that their second-half identity, and their belief, travels into the divisional round, where they will host either the Rams or the Eagles next weekend.