Jake Moody stood on the field at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, on Monday night and looked around as rain fell down on him. His Chicago Bears teammates shouted around him before they suddenly lifted Moody up on their shoulders and started raising him up and down.

Moody smiled as some of his teammates, whom he had just introduced himself to earlier in the day, started patting him and jumping up and down around him.

It was a surreal moment for Moody. The San Francisco 49ers had waived him after one game in September before he ended up on the Bears’ practice squad. But there he was, celebrating with his teammates after he kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired to give the Bears a 25-24 win over the Washington Commanders.

“It feels amazing, obviously,” Moody said. “Hitting a game-winner is always a good time. Doing it for a new team, in my first game, it’s huge.”

It felt like a moment that wouldn’t happen late Monday. The Bears had led for most of three quarters as they tried to get revenge for last season’s last-season Hail Mary loss. But with four minutes left, the Commanders held 24-22 lead and seemed like they’d run away with a win.

Then opportunity presented itself.

Washington faced third-and-1 from the Chicago 40-yard line when it seemed like Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels went through a read option. But as Daniels tried to hand the ball off to the running back, he fumbled it. When Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright saw the ball on the field, he acted on instinct and pounced on it.

“It’s a great feeling, definitely, when you can flip the field or change the field ... ” Wright said. “So it was definitely good for that to happen.”

Chicago took over on its own 44 with 3:07 left in the game and there was only one thing going through quarterback Caleb Williams' mind as he and his teammates went on the field: It’s time to go win the game and not give the Commanders the ball back.

Bears head coach Ben Johnson echoed that thought. He wanted to ride the run and run out enough clock to not let the Commanders repeat last year’s heroics.

Johnson did so by relying on the run, although it might’ve seemed his team would be in a passing situation. Running back D’Andre Swift picked up five yards off two runs before the two-minute warning. Williams hit rookie tight end Colston Loveland for a first down and then the Bears displayed good situational awareness to burn clock but also move up the field for a field goal attempt.

Swift picked up 14 yards off two runs and forced the Commanders to burn two timeouts. Williams faced pressure and was sacked but he stayed in bounds to make sure Washington burned its final time out.

Then Swift picked up 15 yards on a run to get the ball to the Commanders’ 18 and time in the Bears’ favor. Williams moved toward the center of the field and Johnson called his final time out, setting up Moody’s game-winning moment.

Moody needed to block out a lot when he went back onto the field for the game-winning kick. Not only did Moody have to fight the wind and the rain and a blocked field-goal attempt at the start of the fourth quarter. He tried to block out his past with the 49ers and focused on the kick ahead of him.

It ended with him being hoisted through the night after he made a 38-yard kick.

“I felt like we were all cool, calm and collected,” punter and holder Tory Taylor said. “Like I was just trying to think that we’ve done this 1000 times, and I think some people probably shy away from the opportunity. But I was like, [shoot], how good is this? You know what I mean? We’re about to go kick a game winner, especially after what happened 12 months ago.”

It felt like a fitting place for Moody and the Bears to have this moment.

A year ago, a last-second Hail Mary started a season’s unraveling that led to a 5-12 record and a head coach firing. On Monday, the Bears won their second straight game on the road because of a late game-winning drive.

A year ago, Moody likely wouldn’t be hoisted up in the air and an improbable win. On Monday, Williams and the Bears showed they can thrive in these moments and they’re not the same-old Bears.

“However situation goes down, we know we can win these games in these moments, in these big moments,” Williams said. “So, we would like to win by 30, but that’s not always going to be the case. So being able to know we win these games is really important.”