How the Bears’ second-half adjustments led to a wild-card win
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Ben Solak
In the Bears’ postgame locker room following their 31-27 victory over the Packers in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs Saturday night, running back Kyle Monangai celebrated the team’s seventh victory of the season. On the one hand, they did Seven times, but this one — the Bears’ first home playoff game in eight years — sure felt a little different at halftime.
“No,” said Monangai. “Same old.”
Trailing the Packers 21-3 at halftime, the Bears erased an 18-point deficit – the fourth-largest comeback in franchise history and the largest in team postseason history. They are only the fourth team to win a playoff game as they enter the fourth quarter trailing by more than 15 points.
But these bears don’t feel the difference of the moment but rather the familiar embrace of an old friend: adversity. After the game, coach Ben Johnson recalled a day in training camp in which the team watched film of the Patriots’ legendary Super Bowl comeback against the Falcons, coming back from a 28-3 deficit. “That was my message to the group,” Johnson said of his halftime speech. “Just remind them that it’s been done before. Rather than saying, ‘Oh, woe is me,’ or ‘Oh shit, we’re in a hole,’ it’s more like, ‘This is a great opportunity to turn this into a game that we’ll never forget.’ And that’s what they did.'”
The halftime locker room is a special place for Chicago: it’s where the adjustments are made. League-leading adjustments. In the second half, the Bears offense leads the league in EPA per game. Chicago’s yards per play went from 5.3 in the first half to 6.1 in the second half (second best in the NFL). And the Bears’ points per drive went from 2.05 in the first half to 2.88 in the second (fourth best).
In three games against the Packers this season, the Bears averaged 0.5 points per drive in the first half… and 3.85 in the second.
Of course, it’s not just about training adjustments. Just as all the Bears were unfazed by the deficit, quarterback Caleb Williams was unfazed by the improbability. Facing a fourth-and-8 with the game on the line and guiding a Bears offense that was 1-of-5 on fourth down at that point in the game, Williams made one of his most spectacular throws in a season defined by magic.
The Bears had to have that first down.
And they got it and more!
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It’s not coaching, it’s uncoachable. He’s the kind of franchise-defining, future-changing talent who gets drafted No. 1 by a listless franchise in need of a savior QB. It was 27 hard-earned yards to Williams’ 361 in the game — the most by a Bears quarterback in a playoff game in franchise history.
Williams wasn’t the only one to stand out offensively on Saturday night, however. Rookie tight end Colston Loveland totaled 137 receiving yards, just shy of the record (142 yards) for a rookie tight end in a playoff game. As much as the Bears are a second-half team, Loveland is a second-half player. Since Week 9, Loveland has averaged 66.7 yards per game, which ranks 20th among all pass receivers and third, behind George Kittle and Trey McBride, among tight ends. Good company.
On Saturday night, Loveland had 115 of his 137 receiving yards in the second half, including three corner routes that were all effortlessly blown open against the Packers defense. (Hello, halftime adjustments.)
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Loveland was also the target on the successful 2-point conversion, which gave the Bears a four-point lead late in the fourth. The Bears called an isolation route for Loveland, who beat linebacker Nick Niemann in the front corner of the end zone. These isolation routes generally go to star receivers. The Bears called him up for their rookie tight end.
“I know that Caleb has immense confidence in [Loveland]” Johnson said after the game. “He’s one of the first people in the building every day. He always studies his playbook while he eats breakfast. He is always the last one off the training ground to use the JUGS machine. He has been a model of consistency, which, for a rookie, says a lot. As a coach, we really lean on him.”
There’s no coming back in the second half without stops in the second half, and the Bears defense found them somehow. On four drives in the first half, the defense allowed three touchdowns and one field goal attempt late in the half. Johnson’s aggressive decisions on fourth down were negated due to the vulnerability of the defense.
To start the second half? Three and out, three and out, five and out, three and out. Those drives yielded just one first down, never reset field position, and took just 6 minutes, 13 seconds off the game clock. As the offense struggled to find its footing, the defense gave it chance after chance after chance.
The Bears defense has not been a unit in the second half this season, but rather an opportunistic unit, leading the regular season in takeaways (33). But turnovers never happened in this game. The Packers’ sixth offensive lineman, Darian Kinnard, fumbled (you read that right) into a wide gap, but it bounced into the hands of defensive tackle Gervon Dexter Sr. Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson forced a flying Christian Watson to fumble inches from the goal line, but the ball landed right at the feet of Romeo Doubs. Corner Nahshon Wright, who was tied for second in the league in interceptions with five, had one in his sights until Jayden Reed interfered with the catch.
Instead, it was the steady run defense, which allowed just 6 yards on seven carries in the second half. It was the presence of Kyler Gordon, the slot corner who returned from injury, didn’t play a snap on the first two drives, took over for Nick McCloud and brought a new physicality to the position. It was the much-needed appearance of the pass rush, which pressured Love on 32 percent of his dropbacks in the second half, compared to 18 percent in the first half.
“Obviously [Dennis Allen] “I got really aggressive: corner blitzes, throwing Brisker,” safety Kevin Byard III said after the game. “And in terms of coverage, we just covered a little bit better, I got a few [pass breakups] …we just executed better. The confidence in this team, going at halftime not where we wanted to be. But there was no panic. We knew it would be one game at a time, and that’s what we did. »
Byard is the veteran voice of the young team, one of the few Bears with playoff experience. He knows what it’s like to play win-or-go-home football; Allen, the Bears’ defensive coordinator and longtime Saints defensive coach, knows what it’s like to play win-or-go-home football. But Williams, Loveland and the Bears offense know what it’s like to play second-half football.
Put it together and you get a playoff victory – an emphatic stamp of belonging. Lucky or not, improbable or not, young or not, the Bears are here. They won a playoff game – and against the Packers at that. Eight teams will remain in the NFL playoffs as the dust settles on wild-card weekend, and the Bears are among them.
Whatever Monangai thinks, it’s not “the same thing.”
