Caleb Williams’ Stunning Comeback Saves Bears from a Crushing Defeat in NFL Week 9 Shockwave

NFL Week 9 didn’t just deliver games — it served up a banquet of bedlam and edge-of-your-seat drama that left fans clutching their snacks and scratching their heads. Ever wonder if a 14-point comeback in under two minutes is just an urban legend? Well, the Bengals tried to rewrite history only to stumble at the finish line against a Bears squad that turned chaos into artistry, led by none other than Caleb Williams and a rookie back who rushed like he was late for a date. Meanwhile, the Packers, everyone’s supposed Super Bowl hope, found themselves flat on their home turf, stunned by a resurgent Panthers team that refuses to be written off — and with injuries piling up, Green Bay’s dreams might be hanging by a thread. So how does one week capture the unpredictable beauty and brutal heartbreak of the NFL better than this? If the Week 9 action teaches us anything, it’s that in football, the script is always ready for a surprise twist. LEARN MORE.

NFL Week 9 has been full of chaos and thrilling endings. From the Bengals’ comeback that wasn’t to the Packers falling flat, here are the top stories.

It wasn’t surprising that a lot of points were scored when the Chicago Bears played the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

The Bengals allowed the most yards per game, and the Bears’ injury-plagued secondary was likely to have problems with the best wide receiver tandem in the league.

The points started coming on the opening kickoff (the Bengals’ Charlie Jones returned it for a touchdown) and didn’t stop. But no one could’ve predicted the chaos that would ensue at the end of the game.

The Bears seemingly clinched the victory with 2:46 left when Trumaine Edmunds appeared to return an interception for a touchdown. But he was ruled down after review and the Bengals got the ball back after a Bears three-and-out.

Joe Flacco found Noah Fant for a touchdown with 1:43 left and hit Tee Higgins on a two-point conversion pass to cut the deficit to six, but the Bengals still needed to recover an onside kick and score without any timeouts or the two-minute warning remaining.

They did so while barely breaking a sweat after recovering the onside kick. The Bengals took just 49 seconds to march 57 yards on six plays. Andrei Iosivas caught a 9-yard touchdown with 54 seconds left and the extra point gave the Bengals the lead.

But 57 seconds was plenty of time for the Bears against the Bengals’ porous defense. Caleb Williams found Colston Loveland in the middle of the field and he broke free of the Cincinnati defenders for a 58-yard touchdown and the lead with 17 seconds left.

The only question was whether that was too much time left for the Bengals. Flacco’s magic ran out when his Hail Mary attempt fell well short of the end zone and was intercepted.

As you can imagine, it was a historic offensive day for the Bears.

Kyle Monangai, a seventh-round rookie, started in place of the injured D’Andre Swift and rushed for 176 yards, the most by a Bears running back since Matt Forte ran for 205 yards against the Carolina Panthers in 2011.

Williams became the first player since at least 1960 with two or more receptions and 20 or more passing attempts in a game. DJ Moore got in on the history as well.

The @ChicagoBears are the first team in NFL history to have a player with 3+ pass TD (Caleb Williams), another player with 1+ pass TD and 1+ rush TD (DJ Moore) and a third player with 150+ rush yards (Kyle Monangai). pic.twitter.com/P7owNT5Pio

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) November 2, 2025

But the game will likely be remembered most for the missed opportunity by the Bengals.

Had their defense held, they would’ve been the second team since at least 1983 to come back from a 14-point deficit with less than two minutes remaining. Funnily enough, the only team to do so was the 2001 Bears against the Cleveland Browns.

The Panthers Surprise the Packers

Perhaps we should have expected the unexpected when the Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers matched up on Sunday.

Two of the toughest teams to figure out squared off with the Packers seen as heavy favorites at home. But Jordan Love and the Green Bay offense couldn’t get anything going all day, managing to score just one touchdown with 2:01 remaining in the game.

That touchdown did tie the game, though, and the Packers just needed one stop from their stalwart defense to get the game to overtime.

Carolina had other ideas. The Panthers marched down the field on a nine-play, 40-yard drive to put Ryan Fitzgerald in position for a 49-yard field goal attempt as time expired to give Carolina a 16-13 win.

He knocked it through, and Lambeau Field was left stunned.

Packers vs Panthers Live Win Probability

The game continued a troubling development for the Packers, a team that looks every bit the part of a Super Bowl contender at times but has had massive letdowns as a big favorite.

Green Bay is 3-0 against teams that made the playoffs last season but has now lost to both the Panthers and the Cleveland Browns, while also tying the Dallas Cowboys.

While the Packers have to find a way to be more consistent, the bigger blow to their Super Bowl aspirations came in the form of injury. Tucker Kraft was carted off and may have torn his ACL. If he is indeed lost for the season, it leaves an offense that has struggled with consistency without its most reliable pass catcher.

Kraft is fifth among all tight ends with at least 50 targets in burn yards per target and has been a force in the middle of the field for the Packers. He broke out last Sunday with seven catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns against the Steelers. Green Bay will need its rotating cast of talented receivers to step up in Kraft’s absence.

It would be unfair to make this entire game about the losing team, though. Because the Carolina Panthers – yes, the Carolina Panthers – are now 5-4. It was easy to write off Carolina after a 40-9 blowout loss last week sent the team to 4-4 without a marquee win.

But, after Sunday’s affair in Green Bay, the Panthers are now over .500 again with a signature victory. The key to the Panthers scoring just enough points to win was abandoning the notion of a split backfield and leaning back into Rico Dowdle as the focal point of the offense.

Dowdle was a monster during Chuba Hubbard’s injury absence, but Dave Canales clearly felt he had to give Hubbard a chance to remain a co-starter. In the past two weeks, Hubbard had 26 carries for 65 yards while Dowdle had 25 carries for 133 yards.

The Panthers turned the backfield back over the Dowdle this week, and he delivered with 130 yards on 25 carries. They also didn’t abandon the run on their last drive, and Dowdle had a key 19-yard rush on 2nd-and-10 from the 50-yard line that set up the game-winning field goal.

With an inconsistent but ascending defense and a ground game built around Dowdle, the Panthers are going to be a tougher matchup each week than most people expected coming into the season.

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