The kick went up from the cold, wet ground at the 42-yard line.
In those final, tense moments, the Chicago Bears needed one more miracle. In a season chock-full of unlikely comebacks and wild last-minute victories, the 2025 Bears needed one more prayer answered.
“We wholeheartedly believed we were going to block that kick,” Bears special teamer Daniel Hardy said.
As he has been all season, Hardy was on the field-goal block unit, trying to fight through the Los Angeles Rams protection to get a finger on the football. Hardy had been on the field earlier this season when the Bears blocked a potential game-winning kick against the Las Vegas Raiders. Blocking this kick in overtime of Sunday’s divisional-round playoff game against the Rams was not out of the question.
The conditions were less than ideal, with snow swirling throughout Soldier Field for much of the night. The Bears would take their miracle any way they could get it.
“I thought he was going to miss it, especially with it being cold, windy, snowy,” said safety Jaquan Brisker, who watched from the sideline.
But the powers that be had already granted the Bears one miracle Sunday night. Quarterback Caleb Williams backpedaled some 20 yards on fourth down before lofting a last-ditch effort that tight end Cole Kmet somehow caught in the end zone for a game-tying touchdown to force overtime.
In overtime, the Bears finally ran out of miracles. Rams kicker Harrison Mevis booted the kick through the uprights, giving the Rams a 20-17 victory that sent them into next week’s NFC championship.
In the brief, stunning seconds that followed, what struck Hardy most was the silence. A hush fell over the 60,253 fans at Soldier Field who just watched coach Ben Johnson’s comeback kids, the monsters of the miracle, come to their cruel finale.
“Nothing from the crowd,” Hardy said. “I don’t even think I heard anything from the opposite sideline. It was just quiet.”
It really, truly was over.
The Bears battled the Rams, with their No. 1-ranked offense, to the bitter end. Williams, who threw three interceptions in the game, still found a way to keep his team in it against MVP favorite Matthew Stafford. But Williams threw his final interception in overtime, with his offense driving into Rams territory, and it proved to be the beginning of the end.
So much about this team felt like some sort of divine intervention. In the first season since her death, franchise owner Virginia Halas McCaskey must have been watching over her beloved Bears. Or perhaps it was the fact that a pope with Chicago roots was elected on the day before rookie minicamp began.
And then there’s Johnson, the first-year head coach who had no problem ripping off his shirt in celebration or telling the Green Bay Packers that he plain doesn’t like them.
Johnson’s postgame “good, better, best” celebratory speeches became must-watch content this season. The energy in the room as Johnson stood in front of his team was unmatched. Every player, coach, staff member — even the team’s president — hung on his every word, and fans could watch it week in, week out as if they were right there in the room.
There was no such victory speech Sunday.
“It’s crushing,” offensive lineman Theo Benedet said. “It’s devastating. You never expect it.”
Teams don’t share those postgame speeches after a loss, but one can imagine the pain in the room when the season ends. Johnson’s message to the team after the game was about that hurt, that pain.
“It hurts, but it hurts for a reason and it’s because we put so much into it,” Hardy said. “For everything that happened this season, nobody gave us a chance to be here or do what we did this season and when the pressure was on, it just made us tighter.”
It was one year ago that the Bears hired Johnson. He took over a five-win football team and turned it into an 11-6 division champion. His Bears somehow erased an 18-point halftime deficit a week ago against the Packers in the wild-card round.
They were poised for another comeback Sunday. Williams and the offense were driving into enemy territory in overtime with a chance to send these Bears to the NFC championship, a realm they haven’t seen in 15 years.
Williams’ overtime interception proved fatal. But that’s life in the NFL. The Bears — who played in 13 one-possession games in the regular season and postseason combined — know that as well as anyone.
Every team needs a lucky break here or there, but these Bears don’t believe it was divine intervention that led them to this point.
“We know that we put our best foot forward,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “This game went back-and-forth all day against a really great team and I’m proud of that. The guys — don’t get it twisted, we hurt, we hurt — but we are also proud of the effort and the commitment that it took to get to this point.”
Johnson knows this team was special.
“I believe that to my core,” he said.
Fans will remember these Bears for a long time. As veteran safety and team captain Kevin Byard III said, this Bears team gave the fans “their money’s worth.”
Byard was one of the few players on this team with any significant playoff experience. A 10-year veteran, he’s seen it all. And this was the most fun he’s ever had playing football, he said.
The city of Chicago might know how he feels.
“This is a special group,” Byard said. “I wish we had a little bit more time.”