The Chicago Bears didn’t win Saturday night’s Wild Card game against the Green Bay Packers because their defense dominated from start to finish.
They won because it finally caught up to the moment.
That distinction matters because the first half at Soldier Field looked like the exact scenario Ben Johnson feared heading into the postseason — and the reason he coached the game the way he did. Johnson’s refusal to punt wasn’t bravado or stubbornness. It was an acknowledgement of reality. He believed his offense would need to score every time it touched the ball to beat Green Bay, because trusting the defense to string together stops felt like a gamble.
Recent history backed that up. Chicago’s defense, opportunistic all season, had also been carved up repeatedly. In their final two regular-season games against San Francisco, the Bears surrendered 71 points and 929 total yards. A week earlier, cameras caught Johnson lamenting a punt late against Detroit in Week 18, muttering into his headset that he should have kept the offense on the field. Against the Packers, he wasn’t about to make the same mistake.
The defense validated that thinking in the first half. Green Bay marched to 21 points on 232 yards, with Jordan Love efficient and comfortable (9-of-15, 139 yards, three touchdowns) and Josh Jacobs consistently churning out positive runs. Chicago looked disjointed — late to fits, slow to close, reactive instead of aggressive. Down 21–3 at halftime, the Bears were staring at elimination.
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn ImagesThe Defensive Flip That Changed Bears–Packers
Then the tone flipped.
The opening possession of the second half became the hinge point of the night. Green Bay received the ball with momentum and control, and Chicago’s defense needed something — anything — to stop the bleeding and reawaken a restless stadium.
On first-and-10 from the Packers’ 20, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen sent cornerbacks Nahshon Wright and Jaylon Johnson on a blitz from opposite edges. Wright flushed Love from the pocket, and as he tried to escape, Montez Sweat arrived to deliver a hit that forced an incompletion.
On the next snap, D’Marco Jackson timed his blitz perfectly, shooting through the middle to meet Jacobs almost as soon as he took the handoff. Suddenly, it was third-and-long, and Soldier Field was alive again.
Third-and-12 turned into a three-and-out when rookie Austin Booker chased Love into an errant throw into the dirt.
“That just gave our guys a little bit of confidence,” Allen said (via Bears.com). “You’re not going to win it on one series. But you’ve got to get the first stop.”
That stop did more than change field position. It energized the sideline, applied pressure to Green Bay’s offense, and fed directly into a Bears scoring drive capped by a Cairo Santos field goal. The crowd was engaged. The sideline was animated. And the Packers felt it.
Jackson — thrust into the middle linebacker role and defensive play-caller duties after T.J. Edwards went down early in the second quarter — felt the shift immediately.
“When you hear the crowd ramp up, it feeds you,” Jackson said. “It makes it harder for them to communicate. That crowd effect is real.”
Mandatory Credit: Mike Dinovo-Imagn ImagesIt wasn’t just a stop — it was how it happened. Pressure from the secondary. A tackle for loss from the middle. A rush off the edge. Three different defenders, three decisive plays, reinforcing trust across the unit.
“When I had that TFL, it sparked me,” Jackson said. “Then other guys make plays, and it becomes contagious.”
That three-and-out turned into another. Then another. By the end of the third quarter, Green Bay was scoreless. After halftime, Chicago allowed just six points, 190 yards of offense, and — most stunningly — six rushing yards on seven carries.
Early in the fourth quarter, momentum snowballed. Dominique Robinson stuffed a run. Johnson broke up a pass. Sweat forced Love into his second intentional grounding penalty of the night. The offense responded with a D’Andre Swift touchdown run, pulling the Bears within one score.
Though Booker recorded the defense’s lone sack, the group finished with eight quarterback hits — three by Sweat alone. Johnson made sure that didn’t go unnoticed, handing Sweat a game ball for being “around that quarterback the entire second half.”
“The stat line might not show it,” Jackson said, “but those guys were causing havoc.”
When the Packers briefly extended the lead with 6:36 left, Caleb Williams took over, delivering a sequence that will live in Chicago memory — touchdown passes to Olamide Zaccheaus and DJ Moore, plus a two-point conversion to Colston Loveland, to put the Bears ahead 31–27.
Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn ImagesWith 1:43 remaining, the defense had one final assignment.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Jackson said. “I knew the offense was about to do that. I was thinking, ‘Now it’s our turn to close it out.’”
The final Packers drive was tense and deliberate — 11 plays that consumed every ounce of composure Chicago had left. Allen called it “great situational defense,” forcing Green Bay to earn every inch while keeping them out of the end zone.
It came down to one last play from the Chicago 28. Love mishandled the snap, scrambled, and launched a desperation throw that ricocheted off Kyler Gordon and fell incomplete.
“I just dropped to my knees,” Jackson said. “God’s great.”
The largest postseason comeback in franchise history was complete. A defense once doubted — even by its own head coach — had delivered when it mattered most.
On Saturday night, the Bears didn’t just survive because of their defense.
They survived because it finally became the defense it needed to be.
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