Bears Close Out Season with Some Satisfaction in Green Bay

Cairo Santos' 51-yard field goal pulls out a 24-22 Chicago win to end the Packers' series winning streak at a record 11 straight.

Cairo Santos (8) gets a hug from holder Tory Taylor as teammates rush to him at the end following his 51-yard winning field goal. / Mark Hoffman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It only seemed appropriate that when the Bears' frustration against the Green Bay Packers ended, it came in a meaningless game to finish a miserable 5-12 season and hurt their own draft status.

At least they didn't take an 11-game losing streak into their murky offseason.

The Bears gave away a lead they held almost the entire game and then staged a last-minute drive to a 51-yard Cairo Santos field goal as time expired on their seaosn Sunday to pull out a 24-22 victory.

"You think about the first game, how the first game ended at our place against Green Bay," Bears interim coach Thomas Brown said, recalling the blocked Santos 46-yard field goal in a 20-19 loss. "No better feeling than Cairo getting the chance to come on the field.

"Great job  by our field goal team to protect. It was perfect execution. He drilled it. Game over."

In a shining example of complementary football, the Bears made plays on offense, defense and special teams to halt a 20-game road losing streak, while winning in Green Bay for the first time since 2015. Most important, they ended their 11-game losing streak to the Packers.

Caleb Williams went 21 of 29 for only 148 yards, including a key touchdown on a  32-yard fourth-quarter screen pass to DJ Moore and the defense produced two takeaways. They still needed the late drive after blowing the lead on a turnover.

"There's been times throughout the season where we've marched dow the field and in two minutes over and over again and, whether we put ourselves in position for overtime or put ourselves in position to score—we've done it I would say four times, five times this season—those situations didn't go our way, whether it was the Hail Mary or a bunch of other things," Williams said. "So being able to to do it this way, being able to end the season off the right way, like I said, being able to have the first win of 2025 vs. Green Bay on a two-minute drive, we couldn't ask for a better way."

The Bears also scored on one of their most famed plays from the past, a fake on a punt return that Johnny Knox and Devin Hester once ran for a TD that was called back. This time, though, it counted.

Moore was the fake return man and duped the Packers into thinking he was fielding the punt, a ball that was actually on the other side of the field. Josh Blackwell caught the punt on the right side of the field and sped up the sideline untouched and virtually unchallenged 94 yards for the TD. It put the Bears ahead 7-0 in the first quarter and they never lost the lead until late in the fourth quarter.

"That just gave us all the momentum that we was going to go out there and have fun and then at the end became businesslike and we closed the game out," Moore told reporters afterward.

It all made for quite a birthday present for 102-year-old team matriarch Virginia McCaskey to see the rivals beaten in Lambeau.

The Bears offense accounted for only 224 yards but marched it 48 yards in the final 54 seconds to score their first fourth-quarter comeback win behind Williams.

He hit Moore on a third-down slant across the middle for 18 yards to Green Bay's 33 after adjusting the play on sight at the line, then got the clock killed with two seconds remaining to set up Santos.

"It was amazing," Moore said. "He stayed calm, cool, collected and had us rolling."

Santos' winning kick hooked a bit early but stayed true and got inside the left upright with plenty of room.

"You couldn't ask for a better way to end the season, through all of what's been going on, through all of coaches being fired, not playing well myself, and then us losing many, many games in a row, 12? What was it, 10, 11, some crazy number," Williams said. "That and being able to put Cairo in that same situation that we put him in last game."

The Packers lost receiver Christian Watson to a knee injury, QB Jordan Love to an elbow injury and the Bears lost two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson to a quad injury during the game.

That Moore would make the crucial catch to set up the win only seemed appropriate because he fumbled with the Bears protecting a 21-19 lead and 1:49 left as they were trying to run out the clock. It gave the Packers the chance to take their first lead on a 55-yard Brandon McManus field goal with 55 seconds remaining.

However, the Bears overcame a huge illegal shift penalty on Moore with 15 seconds remaining before Moore caught the 18-yard pass.

The Bears managed to drop from ninth to 10th in draft order due to the loss but no one cared.

Moore caught nine passes for 86 yards. D'Andre Swift had a 4-yard second-quarter TD run and the defense had forced fumbles from Johnson and Kevin Byard.

Now the Bears go on to an uncertain offseason. They need to hire a new coach, or decide to keep Brown.

Apparently they'll keep Ryan Poles as GM, as team president Kevin Warren has said, but more will be known as the coaching hunt unfolds.

At least, before they play again they know they no longer have an embarrassing six-year losing streak intact against their most bitter rival.

"I think the core guys who are going to be here, we've got, like, a talented group," tight end Cole Kmet told reporters afterward. "So I think there's just affirmation of that again.

"If we take care of our business, and I think if we're more detailed and better with our prep and we're executing at a much higher rate, we can be a real high-level team. But that's going to be all on us as players and obviously we've got to wait to see what coach comes in and all that kind of stuff."

It will be a long offseason.

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