The plays behind the Bears’ fourth-quarter comeback against the Packers

The Bears pulled off a thrilling comeback against the Green Bay Packers on Saturday to win their playoff game. Quarterback Caleb Williams led his seventh fourth-quarter game-winning drive while the defense made key second-half adjustments to stymie Green Bay.

But the Bears will need to make some changes quickly to avoid another 18-point halftime deficit if they want to beat the Rams. Here are three of the most interesting things the Bears said Thursday.

On offensive cat-and-mouse games

Chicago pulled off an unforgettable win over the Packers because of a few explosive plays that led to three touchdowns at the end of the game. Some of them involved a little game of offensive cat and mouse.

A good example of that came on the team’s 2-point conversion after its second touchdown. Bears head coach Ben Johnson brought in a jumbo package and made it seem like he would run it in for a score. Instead, he shifted rookie tight end Colston Loveland out wide left to create an easy one-on-one matchup against a Packers backup linebacker.

“I just think anytime you plan something and you go out and you go execute it at a high level, it’s really what we do it for,” Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “It’s why we spend all this time in the offseason. It’s why we spend all this time during the week game planning. To watch it come to life is really what it’s all about.”

Johnson’s ability to make something familiar look different came through in Williams’ go-ahead touchdown throw to DJ Moore as well.

The Bears put right tackle Darnell Wright on the left side on the play and had him go to the flat, which made the Packers think Williams was looking for a screen pass to rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III. That forced the Packers’ secondary to bite, and Moore had a wide-open touchdown catch.

Chicago ran a similar screen pass near the beginning of the game Saturday, which set up the look later in the game. Although the two plays were a bit different, one play helped set up the other.

On balancing a healthy secondary

For the first time this season, it looks like Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen will have all of his secondary pieces available for a game. That will force Allen to make some decisions on how he wants to rotate players to slow down the Rams’ potent offense.

Slot cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson was a full participant at practice Thursday after missing Saturday’s game with a concussion. That came after Kyler Gordon returned from injured reserve Saturday and played in his fourth game of the season. Allen said both will play a role in Sunday’s game.

“We’ll see how the game plays out,” Allen said. “But we got a plan in place for both those players to have a role on all down and distance situations.”

Allen will also need to decide how much he wants to use Gordon and cornerback Jaylon Johnson as they continue to work their way back from their respective injuries. Neither player is 100%, and both showed limitations Saturday. That’s why Allen rotated Tyrique Stevenson in for Jaylon Johnson and Nick McCloud in for Gordon.

That might need to continue as the Bears will try to limit Rams star wide receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, along with tight ends Colby Parkinson and Tyler Higbee. Allen remained confident that Jaylon Johnson and Gordon could make the most of their opportunities.

“I think those two guys are two of the guys when we started the season, we expected to be kind of cornerstone pieces for us, some of the best players on our defense,” Allen said. “So it’s been challenging to try to manipulate that a little bit. I do think each one of those, each opportunity they get to go out there, I think I’ve seen improvement out of each one of those. So we’ll continue to have a plan to try to put the best group out there that we can that gives us a chance to have success.”

On unsung special-teams heroes

While the offense and defense adjusted to help pull off Saturday’s comeback win, the Bears’ special teams played a major role as well.

Chicago almost had a game-changing play on the kickoff following its opening touchdown. Kicker Cairo Santos got in Packers running back Josh Jacobs’ way, which allowed safety Elijah Hicks to catch up and punch the ball out. The Packers recovered the fumble.

“I thought Hicks did an unbelievable job …,” Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. “And for Elijah to get that ball out, now we want to recover it, but for Elijah to have the awareness, something that we talked about all week was punching at the ball, and for him to do it in that moment was outstanding and the play wouldn’t have been able to be made if Cairo didn’t get in Jacobs’ way. So it’s a big ups to Cairo because I have seen defensive players that don’t wanna tackle Josh Jacobs, and Cairo stood in there like a man.”

Defensive end Daniel Hardy also continued to make an impact on special teams. Hardy and the Bears came a couple steps short of blocking a couple of field-goal attempts Saturday.

Although he didn’t connect, Hardy has impressed throughout the season and will want to do so against his former team, the Rams.

“Unbelievable competitor,” Hightower said of Hardy. “Elite competitor. Leader. Phenomenal find by the personnel department, just like Josh Blackwell was a phenomenal find. Those kids, Daniel Hardy has developed. Josh Blackwell has developed. Daniel Hardy’s obviously playing against his former team this week, so he’s got a different look in his eye this week.”