Caleb Williams stood on the Soldier Field grass on Saturday night as the anxiety of an entire city seemingly surrounded him.

The Chicago Bears faced their ultimate do-or-die moment, one where it seemed even they couldn’t find a way to escape. They had a fourth down at their own 43 yard line as they trailed the Green Bay Packers by 11 points late in the fourth quarter of their NFL Wild Card game.

Williams carefully listened in his helmet as Bears head coach Ben Johnson read over the play call as fans in the stands grew slightly louder with anxiety. Before Johnson’s microphone was cut off, he had one last message to his quarterback.

“I need you right here,” Williams recalled Johnson saying, “and go make a play, kid.”

He responded by making what could be considered the greatest throw of his young career.

Williams completed a throw that has been his go-to in tense moments. He scrambled out of pressure as a Packers defender almost had him and completed a 27-yard pass to Rome Odunze to pick up the first down.

But it wasn’t just the first down that Williams picked up. The throw sparked what would eventually become the greatest comeback in a season full of greatest comebacks.

The throw set into motion the Bears’ 31-27 comeback win over the Packers.

“It’s really who those guys are now at this point,” Johnson said afterward at Soldier Field. “We’ve got a group of guys that just, they don’t waver. The odds are stacked against us, and despite the fact we don’t like the score at halftime, nobody does, no one envisioned the first 30 minutes going that way, yet we just keep plugging along and keep fighting. You know, we have proven that this year, that’s who we are and what we do here at this point.”

It had been something the Bears had done for most of this season to get to Saturday night. Williams and the Bears had put together six comebacks when they trailed with two minutes left in the game, the most since the 1970 merger.

But even this one seemed unlikely.

Chicago struggled for most of the game. It seemed like its fairytale run would come to an end. The Packers seemed to land the knockout punch with just under seven minutes left in the game when Packers quarterback Jordan Love hit on a 23-yard touchdown pass to give his team a 27-16 lead.

But despite the odds, the Bears remember what Johnson had said during halftime when they trailed 21-3. He went back to training camp when he talked about how the New England Patriots overcame a 28-3 deficit to win the Super Bowl LI.

“He said, ‘when we do this, it’s going to be the biggest one in Bears history,’” rookie tight end Colston Loveland recalled.

The first chapter happened on that Williams fourth-down throw to Odunze.

Williams felt pressure from his side right away and started running toward the Bears sideline where the play was designed. Before the Packers pass rush could get him down, Williams floated the ball up and it sailed perfectly into Odunze’s hands.

“Caleb made a tremendous play honestly,” Odunze said. “He put it up for me, put it right where it needs to be and I was able to come down with it. So kudos to him for making an extraordinary play. It was able to put the icing on the cake on that one to get some points on the board.”

Chicago went on to make it a three-point Packers lead a few plays later when Williams completed a touchdown pass to Olamide Zaccheaus and then hit on a two-point conversion to Loveland.

“I think when he hit that, we’re all like, we’re winning this game,” tight end Cole Kmet said.

Then the defense responded from a terrible first half by stopping the Packers from taking a two-score lead. Green Bay got down to the Chicago 26 but kicker Brandon McManus missed the field goal attempt to give the Bears a chance to win or tie the game with 2:51 left in the game.

Williams and the Bears seemed to move the ball down with ease from that point. The Bears picked up three first downs before they went ahead for good.

Chicago’s offense had set up a screen pass on the left side previously in the game. The Bears gave a similar look and when Williams looked at how the Packers’ defenders’ eyes moved, he knew he had a touchdown.

He faked the throw to the screen as soon as he received the snap and instead found a wide open DJ Moore for a 25-yard touchdown to take a 31-27 lead with 1:43 left in the game."

“Just had a feeling that that was going to be the one,” Williams said. “Guys did a great job. [offensive] line did a great job blocking. Guys did a great job selling the fake, and then obviously DJ going up the sideline.”

The defense responded with one more stop to seal the game.

Green Bay had one timeout left and drove the ball back down to the Chicago 28. But with seven seconds left, Love fumbled the snap and couldn’t find an open receiver. The ball dropped to the ground on Love’s pass toward the end zone and the party was on.

“We’re built for moments like this,” linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. “And that wasn’t just today. Like I’ve known that since we overcame a lot of things [during] the regular season. So we knew we just had to keep fighting. Game was never over on the sideline. Just one play at a time, one drive at a time and we’re gonna figure out a way to win the game.”

What’s next isn’t totally clear after the celebration started to quiet down. The Bears will host either the Los Angeles Rams or the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional round at Soldier Field next weekend.

But one thing became clear Saturday night: There doesn’t seem to be a deficit or stage big enough for this season’s team.

“That’s the story,” safety Kevin Byard said. “The Chicago Bears, the cardiac bears, and we’ll keep riding his momentum.”