The Bears and Bengals traded downs and comebacks in the wildest game of the NFL season
The Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals played one of the most exciting games of the NFL season on Sunday, a rollercoaster ride that ended in a 47-42 victory for the Bears.
Joe Flacco threw for 470 yards and four touchdowns in the loss, while Caleb Williams threw for 280 yards and three scores. The teams combined for 31 points in a thrilling fourth quarter, including 28 points in the final five minutes.
The chaos began with less than six minutes left. The Bears had a 34-27 lead when the Bengals lined up for a 54-yard field goal, only for Evan McPherson to miss the kick short.
Two plays later, Chicago wide receiver DJ Moore was fouled at the 1-yard line on a running play, but Cincinnati challenged to see if Moore had fumbled out of the end zone for a touchdown. The Bengals technically won the challenge, but it backfired: the play was turned into a touchdown, giving the Bears a 41-27 lead.
On Cincinnati’s next drive, Flacco brought the offense all the way to the 5-yard line before being picked off by Tremaine Edmonds, who ran the ball all the way back for a pick-six. However, upon review, Edmunds was ruled out by contact, removing the touchdown from the board.
After the interception, the Bears took a two-goal lead with 2 minutes, 42 seconds left in the game — a 99.6% chance of winning, according to ESPN.
But Chicago scored a hat-trick in just 27 seconds, and quickly returned the ball to the Bengals. Flacco needed just four plays to go 55 yards and find Noah Fant for a 23-yard touchdown. After Fant’s score, Cincinnati also converted a two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 41-35.
After the second 3-pointer, the Bengals miraculously recovered an onside kick. The ball didn’t travel 10 yards, but it touched the foot of a Bears player, allowing Cincinnati to punt.
This time, Flacco drove down the field on six plays, finding Andre Iosavas for the go-ahead touchdown with just 54 seconds left.
The next Chicago trip started poorly. Williams threw back-to-back incompletions before finally scrambling for first down on third-and-10, causing the Bears to use a final timeout.
That set up a first-and-10 for Chicago on its own 42 with 25 seconds left. On that play, Williams fired a shot to tight end Colston Loveland over the middle of the field. Loveland somehow evaded the clutches of two Bengals, then outran the rest of the defense for a 58-yard touchdown.
Cincinnati finally had the ball, but its magic finally ran out when Flacco was intercepted on a Hail Mary attempt on the final play of the game.
It was a real up and down fourth quarter for the Bears. Their probability of winning peaked at 99.7% and dropped to 14.1%, a swing of 85.6%. In the end, Chicago held on to improve to 5-3, while the Bengals fell to 3-6.