Happy returns: Duvernay sparks Bears’ comeback win over Vikings

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams felt he needed to say something before Sunday afternoon’s game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Specifically, to Devin Duvernay.

The two had sometimes exchanged encouraging words when they’d see each other before a game. But they didn’t have a ritual of conversing.

Yet for some for some reason Sunday, just before kickoff, Williams wanted to tell Duvernay something. Williams told Duvernay he’d make a big play for the team that day.

Duvernay changed the Bears’ fortunes when it seemed their luck had run out Sunday in Minneapolis. He returned a kick 56 yards in the final minute to help Chicago rally for a 19-17 victory on a last-second 48-yard field goal by Cairo Santos.

“Today just felt like the day and I told (Duvernay) before the game,” Williams said. “(It) ended up kind of working out that way.”

It came close to not working out at all. The Bears seemed to have a stranglehold on Sunday’s game heading into the fourth quarter when they led 16-3. But like the season-opener when the Bears blew a fourth-quarter lead against the Vikings, that grip quickly loosened.

Minnesota scored a touchdown to make it a one-score game with just over 12 minutes left. After Chicago’s offense couldn’t put the game away, Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy engineered another fourth-quarter comeback against his hometown team when he threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Jordan Addison with 50 seconds left.

Then Williams’ prophecy came true.

When Duvernay saw green space on the ensuing kickoff, he didn’t overthink it. He sprinted from his left to his right and followed his blocks until he was pushed out of bounds at the Minnesota 40 yard line.

“Let the game come to you,” Duvernay said. “Because I feel like I’ve been in positions earlier in my career when I was trying to force things to happen. That doesn’t always work out. So just let the game come to you. Sometimes you’ll get played, sometimes you won’t. So just let it come to you and the rest will fall into place.”

Chicago picked up two yards on two runs before running back D’Andre Swift ran it to the Vikings 31 to force fourth-and-1. Bears coach Ben Johnson decided to let the game clock run down to four seconds to set up the game-winning field goal attempt.

Santos missed from 45 yards earlier in the fourth quarter to put his team in a bind. But Santos felt confident that if he got an opportunity to attempt a field goal to win the game, he’d make it.

Santos sneaked the kick inside the left goal post to secure another improbable win for the Bears.

“It was just guys always coming back and stepping in to make big plays for us,” Santos said. “The offense driving down and trusting me to be in that position again. I just had full confidence that I was gonna put that ball through and then find a way to bounce back from a previous miss.”

That confidence is something the Bears have had for most of this season. Chicago used it to beat the Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders with late-game heroics. It continued during their current three-game winning streak.

The winning started in Week 9 with a final-minute comeback to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. It continued last week when the Bears did it again, this time against the New York Giants.

When McCarthy threw the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute Sunday, the Bears didn’t waver.

“I think we’ve proven a number of times this year that one of these phases are going to come through for us,” Johnson said. “Cincinnati game, offense was kind of carrying the banner that game. I thought defense did a really good job today. They’ve done that through the course of the season for the most part. Special teams comes through for us when we really need it today, so we cycled around on who’s stepping up to the plate and bringing us the win. I think that’s what good teams do.”

Despite the win, there was a sense of a missed opportunity. Johnson wanted his team to develop a killer instinct and put teams away when they had the chance. Instead, Chicago let another team come back to force a dramatic win.

With a 7-3 record, Chicago is in the middle of the playoff mix with seven games left in the season. According to Tankathon, the Bears have the toughest strength of schedule the rest of the way.