Chicago Bears players struggled to find the right words Sunday afternoon inside the visiting locker room at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. As soon as they came close to maybe finding an answer, it didn’t seem right.

How does one describe what they had just been through?

A thrill?

Craziness?

Madness?

Every answer seemed unsatisfactory. The Bears had just been part of the wildest two minutes of their careers in a last-minute 47-42 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Many players said the game had taken years off their lives.

But when Bears quarterback Caleb Williams stood at the lectern Sunday in a room inside the stadium in front of reporters, he found the right words to describe what had just happened.

“That’s what we are,” Williams said in Cincinnati. “When things don’t go our way, when adversity hits, we find ways to win for each other, that’s it. I think that’s what it’s been this year.”

It didn’t seem like it’d be that difficult to sum up in Sunday’s win late in the game.

The Bears took control of the game when wide receiver DJ Moore rushed in for a 16-yard touchdown to give his team a 41-27 lead with 4:53 left in the game. It looked like Chicago put the final nail in the coffin when linebacker Tremaine Edmunds intercepted a pass deep in Bears territory with 2:42 left in the game.

Then the adversity hit.

Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco continued the string of heroics he’s accomplished since Cincinnati traded for him from the Cleveland Browns last month. Despite dealing with an AC joint sprain in his throwing arm, Flacco led the Bengals on a four-play, 55-yard touchdown drive that shrank the Bears lead to 41-35 after a two-point conversion with 1:43 left in the game.

Cincinnati attempted an onside kick and the Bengals recovered it after it hit off defensive lineman Daniel Hardy’s leg. Then came what seemed like the inevitable. Flacco led the offense 57 yards down the field in 49 seconds to take a 42-41 lead with 54 seconds left in the game.

The few remaining Bengals fans in the stands couldn’t believe what had just happened. But Williams could.

“Speaking to coach [Ben Johnson] throughout the week, we knew this was an explosive offense that can score at any moment,” Williams said. “He said it a day before the game, ‘If we get up two touchdowns, don’t get comfortable.’ That’s what they did, they made plays.”

As the final two minutes spiraled out of control, Williams said he was calm during the turmoil. But Williams looked anything but calm during the first two plays.

He threw two incompletions as he scrambled to find an open receiver. Williams scrambled again for a 14-yard run to the Chicago 42-yard line and Johnson burned the team’s final timeout with 25 seconds left in the game.

Then the Bears finally got the coverage they had waited for all game. Cincinnati had two split safeties deep in coverage and Williams darted the ball to rookie tight end Colston Loveland in between them at about the Bengals 35.

Loveland bounced off a Bengals defender and sprinted the rest of the way to the end zone with one thing in mind.

“Man, I gotta get in the end zone now,” Loveland said. “I can’t leak it down to six seconds, get tackled on the one and that’s game. That was crazy.”

He didn’t. Loveland powered through, reached the end zone and the Bears took an improbable 47-42 lead with 17 seconds left.

The defense responded from its shaky last two minutes to wrap things up. Flacco completed a pass that got the ball to the Bengals 48 with four seconds left in the game. But the defense made a stand in the final seconds when Nahshon Wright intercepted Flacco’s Hail Mary attempt as time expired.

“It’s easy to fold,” Johnson said. “Our guys didn’t do that. They kept the faith and found a way to come out on top.”

Sunday was hardly the first time the Bears found a way to top adversity. Sunday was the third time Williams led a game-winning drive in the final minute. Chicago did it against the Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders earlier in the year, a vast difference from last season’s numerous collapses.

But Sunday was the first time the Bears had to find a way to win in an offensive shootout. It didn’t look perfect at times. Williams missed some receivers and scrambled too much at times.

But Williams threw for 280 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. When the odds seemed against him, Williams found a way to get his teammates to pull off some heroics once again.

“He’s made for the spotlight,” Moore said. “He loves it when it comes, the lights are on at their brightest and we go from there.”

There will be plenty of questions left to answer in the week following Sunday’s win. Johnson said he was encouraged that some players were disappointed in themselves in the locker room afterward for mistakes they made Sunday even though they won.

“That’s what we are. When things don’t go our way, when adversity hits, we find ways to win for each other, that’s it. I think that’s what it’s been this year.”

—  Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears quarterback

But the Bears feel they’re building something special with these last-minute wins as they improve to 5-3 heading into the second half of the season. There’s never a doubt Chicago can win until the game ends.

“In those moments, we have belief we’re going to win those games,” Williams said. “Finding ways to win only provides confidence to us, and we have to keep going.”