CINCINNATI — Ben Johnson waited for the right look from the Cincinnati Bengals defense all afternoon.

“I was hunting one coverage there before halftime and end of the game, in the two-minute scenarios,” the Chicago Bears coach said. “Couldn’t get it, couldn’t get it.”

On the sideline, as the Bengals were driving down the field to take the lead, Johnson again told quarterback Caleb Williams that he believed the Bengals might show it on the final possession.

Lo and behold, with 25 seconds remaining in the game, the Bears saw what they were looking for.

“Just seeing basically split safety,” rookie tight end Colston Loveland said. “I’m thinking I’ve got a pretty good chance of getting the ball.”

Williams saw it too. Loveland ran up the middle of the field and found a pocket behind the linebackers, but in front of the safeties. Williams zipped a pass that would’ve brought the Bears into field-goal range.

Bears tight end Colston Loveland runs toward the end zone late in the fourth quarter against the Bengals on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Then Loveland bounced off one defender and spun away from another. Incredibly, he was still on his feet.

“I spun around and I’m like, man, I’m still up — so I may as well try to score this thing,” Loveland said.

Loveland raced his way to the end zone for the game-winning, 58-yard touchdown in the final seconds Sunday at Paycor Stadium. The Bears defeated the Bengals 47-42 in dramatic fashion, even after blowing a 14-point lead in the final minutes.

It was a gutty victory for the Bears, who improved to 5-3 on the season. Much like the Week 4 blocked field goal against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Bears won the exact type of game this franchise almost always loses.

“These types of games, the Bears, we’re normally not winning these games,” veteran safety Kevin Byard said.

The Bears led 41-27 after DJ Moore scored a touchdown with just over five minutes to go. Bengals fans streamed out of their home stadium, chalking this one up as another loss.

In the back of his mind, though, Williams remembered something Johnson had said in the week leading up to this game. If we get up by two touchdowns, don’t feel good.

Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco threw an interception with just under three minutes remaining, and still the Bengals didn’t give in. The Bears offense went three-and-out and was forced to punt. Flacco then led a 55-yard touchdown drive to pull within six points.

That’s when things really went off the rails.

A scrum ensues on an onside kick in the fourth quarter between the Bengals and the Bears at Paycor Stadium on Nov. 2, 2025, in Cincinnati. The Bengals took possession. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

The Bengals lined up for an onside kick. Kicker Evan McPherson tapped a dribbler. By rule, the ball has to travel 10 yards before the kicking team can recover it — unless it touches someone on the receiving team.

That’s when Bears defensive end Daniel Hardy’s toe found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hardy moved forward to block a Bengals player in front of him, but the ball veered its way right to him, bouncing off his cleat and right to the Bengals. The Cincinnati offense took over and a tired Bears defense had to try to get one more stop.

On the sideline, Hardy kept seeing the play over and over again.

“Really just replaying it in my head, trying to figure out what I did wrong,” Hardy said. “Just sitting there hoping for a miracle.”

The offensive players were, too. They looked on helplessly.

“Just hoping they hold up and hoping they make a play or something,” right tackle Darnell Wright said of the defense.

Flacco moved the Bengals down the field quickly. They needed only 49 seconds to go 57 yards for what looked like it could be the game-winning touchdown. Flacco connected with receiver Andrei Iosivas for a 9-yard touchdown to give the Bengals the lead with just under a minute to play. The few Bengals fans who remained at Paycor Stadium went crazy.

Then it was the defense’s turn to air some frustration.

“Just being honest, man, I had really bad body language on the sideline,” Byard said. “We gave up the touchdown and I was just super frustrated just because as a defense we want to be able to finish those games.”

Hardy was still hoping for that miracle, too.

Chicago Bears celebrate tight end Colston Loveland’s touchdown late in the fourth quarter, which gave the Bears the lead against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

The next possession started with back-to-back incompletions, with Williams running in circles as he evaded defenders. Then on third-and-10, he scrambled 14 yards for a first down and the Bears burned their final timeout with 25 seconds to go.

That’s when Johnson called the play for Loveland over the middle, hoping for the right look from the Bengals defense. Williams threw a rocket to the rookie and the initial reaction was that he wanted Loveland to go down.

“It’s like Steph Curry with Steve Kerr,” Williams said, referencing a viral clip from the Golden State Warriors. “Where it’s like, ‘Oh no, no, no, no, no — yes, yes, yes.’”

As soon as Loveland spun past the initial defenders, he knew — with no timeouts remaining — there was probably only one option: Find the end zone. If he was tackled in the open field, there was no guarantee the offense could get organized quickly enough to spike the ball and stop the clock.

“It was just an in-the-moment thing,” said Loveland, who scored the first two touchdowns of his NFL career in the game.

The Bears intercepted Flacco’s last effort at a Hail Mary and a raucous 60 minutes of football in Cincinnati was over. Everybody could exhale, but the adrenaline was going to take a while to wear off.

On the sideline, Hardy’s prayers were answered.

“This is more than just a one-man sport,” Hardy said. “So the offense, they did a fantastic job having our back and we were able to pull out a win and that’s the spirit of this team.”

In an emotional postgame locker room, that’s exactly what Johnson told his team. Are there things to clean up? Absolutely. Were mistakes made on offense, defense and special teams? Most definitely.

But Johnson’s postgame speech could serve as a warning to the remaining teams on the Bears’ schedule.

“If it’s close in the fourth quarter, you better watch out,” he said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/02/chicago-bears-cincinnati-bengals-colston-loveland/