By Paul Dehner Jr., Kevin Fishbain and Dan Wiederer
Sunday’s battle between Chicago and Cincinnati was one for the ages, as the Bears managed to pull off a 47-42 win with a game-winning touchdown in the final minute of regulation to thwart a massive Bengals comeback.
Chicago held a 14-point lead with under three minutes to play before quarterback Joe Flacco and the Bengals scored two quick touchdowns to take a 42-41 lead. When the Bears got the ball back with under a minute to go, they engineered a drive, culminating with a 58-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Caleb Williams to tight end Colston Loveland.
Williams went 20-of-34 and finished with 280 passing yards and three touchdowns. Flacco threw for 470 yards and four touchdowns, finishing 31-of-47.
Absolute cinema. pic.twitter.com/ugBpMyf3Ds
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 2, 2025
How in the world?
Jaw-dropping. Mind-bending. There’s just no way. It’s impossible to comprehend how the Bears, ahead 41-27 with less than 3 minutes remaining and with possession after what appeared to be a win-sealing takeaway, lost the lead and appeared headed for an indescribable heartbreaker. A crushing 42-41 defeat to the Bengals. Pure chaos.
Until?
A Chicago miracle. Williams hit Loveland for a 58-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds remaining, providing the redemption that should have never been needed. Bears 47, Bengals 42.
Of course, this dizzying Bears victory ended with a Hail Mary attempt by Cincinnati. The Bears used a much more aggressive pass rush than the play-that-shall-not-be-named from 2024. A Bears interception put the nail in the coffin.
That apparent win-sealing Bears takeaway late in the fourth quarter? It seemed to come with a 96-yard touchdown return by linebacker Tremaine Edmunds until a replay review ruled Edmunds down at the 4-yard line immediately after his pick. Down by contact. From there, the Bears went three-and-punt, surrendered a 55-yard touchdown run in 32 seconds, allowed a two-point conversion pass, couldn’t recover an onside kick and then allowed another touchdown drive, this one 57 yards and capped with Flacco’s heroic 9-yard pass to receiver Andrei Iosivas with 54 seconds remaining.
How had the Bears lost the lead and seemingly put themselves in position to lose a gotta-have-it game? And then Williams to Loveland, the play that saved the day. Maybe saved the season. How in the world? And how do the Bears ride this incredible adrenaline rush from here? Wow. — Dan Wiederer, Bears beat writer
Loveland breaks out
Fans have wondered when Loveland was going to start putting up numbers worthy of being the No. 10 pick. More accurately, they were wondering when this offense and quarterback would start using him that way. Loveland caught the first touchdown of his career on third-and-goal, but it was his game-winning touchdown that gave the Bears the victory. So many things went wrong for the Bears in the final few minutes when they blew a two-touchdown lead.
Williams found Loveland, and the rookie TE did the rest, avoiding a disaster of a loss. It was a bit of a miracle touchdown, but it was what the Bears needed to escape Cincinnati with a win. Loveland finished with six catches for 118 yards on seven targets and showed glimpses of what he is capable of moving forward. There were never concerns that he wasn’t good enough, but the ball hadn’t gone his way enough in the first seven games. No one will forget his touchdown in Cincinnati. — Kevin Fishbain, Bears beat writer
Monangai rushes for 176 yards
No one batted an eye when the Bears would have to turn to seventh-round rookie running back Kyle Monangai after D’Andre Swift was ruled out with a groin injury. He’s impressed since the day he got to Halas Hall and often looked better than his draft slot. In his first chance to be the lead back, all Monangai did was rush for 176 yards, the most for a Bears rookie since 2001, when Anthony Thomas ran for 188 yards — also in Cincinnati against the Bengals.
Monangai showed patience and vision in hitting the holes the offensive line created, with no run more impressive than his 39-yarder that set up WR DJ Moore’s 16-yard touchdown run that extended the lead to two scores. On a day when the Bears needed to score a lot, and when they had to overcome some major miscues on defense and special teams, Monangai gave them something to rely on. A star at Rutgers, Monangai didn’t show the elite traits to be selected early in the draft, but he has impressed as the No. 2 back and came up big when thrust into the starting role. — Fishbain
Bengals defense worsens
There are few words left for this Bengals defense. Somehow, it seems to be getting worse each week. The Bengals have allowed at least 27 points in eight consecutive games. The NFL record is nine. Over the last three weeks, the amount of total yardage and, specifically, yards allowed on the ground has been impossibly bad.
Last three weeks:
Points allowed: 119Yards allowed: 1,472Rushing yards allowed: 682
Yards per rush: 7.4
Then, when they just needed one stop in the final minute, they allowed the Bears to score a touchdown in four plays, going 72 yards, missing more tackles along the way.
Cincinnati tried mixing and matching personnel, looking for any answer to a front seven that couldn’t get pressure or stop the run all day. None of it mattered. Just as the players-only meeting this week didn’t matter. Ben Johnson and the Bears were toying with Cincinnati, keeping their young linebackers’ heads spinning (four Bears players threw passes). The front seven is all-time bad, which is troublesome enough. The bigger issue is they are getting worse when this entire thing was based around progress as the year went along. Last week against the Jets felt like rock bottom. This week, they managed to dig deeper. — Paul Dehner, Bengals beat writer
Flacco gives his all
You can’t ask Flacco to do any more than he has done. This is straight out of a superhero comic. The 40-year-old playing through a painful shoulder injury led the Bengals offense up and down the field despite the defense consistently forcing him to play perfect football. He had one late fumble, an untimely intentional grounding and his first interception with the team, but he more than made up for it by leading two incredible touchdown drives to take the lead in the final minutes, sandwiching an onside recovery.
He’s operating the offense at a level nearly on par with the best stretches under Joe Burrow. After weeks of peppering wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase with targets, he took advantage of the Bears’ focus on him and helped WR Tee Higgins catch two touchdowns, including an acrobatic 44-yard score. It would seem no offense can keep up with the disaster occurring on the opposite side of the ball, but unbelievably, with the help of his special teams, he almost did on Sunday. — Dehner
Sloppy play
The Bengals only have themselves to blame for not establishing a bigger lead than three points (20-17) at halftime. They had six unforced errors that directly correlated to a 22-point swing. It included lining up in the neutral zone on a missed field goal, a dropped pass that could have been a touchdown, keeping multiple Bears drives alive with penalties and an unsportsmanlike penalty in a goal-to-go situation. The margin for error is so thin with this defense, those errors on the controllable aspects of the game are nearly impossible to overcome. — Dehner
