Sunday spoke how ludicrous an afternoon in the NFL can be. Leads crumbled. Upsets reigned. Contenders faltered.

The Carolina Panthers — two-touchdown underdogs at Lambeau Field — stunned the one-loss Green Bay Packers on a last-second field goal, 16-13. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ reeling defense — a unit that had given up 68 points during a two-game losing streak — bullied the hottest offense in football and beat the Indianapolis Colts 27-20. The Minnesota Vikings, starting J.J. McCarthy for the first time in seven weeks, went into Detroit and handed the Lions their second loss in three games, 27-24.

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Then there was the finish of the day, and maybe the finish of the year, featuring two defenses that couldn’t find a way to get off the field. That the Chicago Bears escaped Cincinnati with a 47-42 triumph over the Bengals doesn’t begin to do justice to the theater that unfolded late at Paycor Stadium.

The Bears led 41-27 with less than three minutes left before Joe Flacco — the Bengals’ quarterback for less than a month — led an impossible comeback. He pushed Cincinnati in front with 54 seconds to go after throwing his second touchdown in a span of 49 seconds (a successful onside kick helped). Then Caleb Williams answered with his best throw of the year, and maybe his young career: a 58-yard strike to rookie tight end Colston Loveland that saved the Bears the embarrassment of another unthinkable collapse, something that’s become far too familiar for this franchise in recent years.

“Don’t apologize for a win in this league, guys!” first-year coach Ben Johnson told his players afterward. “Don’t apologize! We did what we had to do!”

As far as best games of 2025, the Bears’ thriller — their fifth win in six games, by the way— sits right up there with the Buffalo Bills’ wild comeback over the Baltimore Ravens in Week 1 and the Denver Broncos’ 33-point fourth-quarter eruption against the New York Giants in Week 7. Hug a Bengals fan if you can: Cincinnati is now the first team since the 1960s to score 38 points or more in back-to-back games and lo