Bear Digest

The One Award Bears Absolutely Must Win at Tonight's NFL Honors

There are a few awards the Bears could come away with including NFL Coach of the Year, but if they fail to win a different award it would be a total travesty.
Gene Chamberlain|
DJ Moore catches the game-winning 46-yard touchdown pass by Caleb Williams with Keisean Nixon on his back in OT.
DJ Moore catches the game-winning 46-yard touchdown pass by Caleb Williams with Keisean Nixon on his back in OT. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It needs to be a huge NFL Honors night on Thursday for the Bears even if they don't come away with the NFL Coach of the Year Award for coach Ben Johnson.

Johnson is nominated, but with both Super Bowl coaches on the list it could be difficult for him to take the honor.

His transformation and the miracle wins the Bears pulled out could be viewed as less impressive than the Patriots actually doing a similar turnaround and then making it to the Super Bowl like Mike Vrabel. And Seattle's Mike Macdonald could be viewed as more effective than both considering his team won the NFL's toughest division and tied for the best record only a year after they failed to make the playoffs.

However, the Bears must be viewed as favorites for at least two honors to be announced, if not three.

One is the first Protector of the Year and Joe Thuney is among the nominees. As a longtime veteran and universally liked good guy, Thuney would be someone voters can get behind. However, there are plenty of good candidates. Lions tackle Penei Sewell is nominated and was an early betting favorite to win this.

NFL Honors: Thursday, 8 p.m., NFL Network, NBC

However, Sewell's team didn't even make the playoffs, the Bears had a series of miraculous wins and Thuney was a key reason they went from 68 to 24 sacks allowed this season. The better pass blocking made possible the Bears' seven fourth-quarter comeback wins, including their playoff win over the Packers.

Besides Thuney, Kevin Brandt of NFL Network gives out an Angry Run Scepter for the angriest run of the year. Kyle Monangai won the weekly Angry Run Award in Week 9 against the Bengals and then for a run against the Packers at Soldier Field in Week 16's Bears comeback win.

Finally, there is the one honor no team seems more likely to win and that is NFL Moment of the Year. The Bears had so many of them, they might be competing against themselves for this.

The Moment of the Year might be the DJ Moore catch in the end zone of Caleb Williams' perfect 46-yard throw to end the miraculous comeback win over Green Bay in overtime, 22-16. The huge finish to the game came after they:

  • Were down 21-3...
  • Had an impossible fourth-and-8 completion for a 27-yard gain to Rome Odunze for a first down that made the rally possible...
  • Had an onside kick recovery by Josh Blackwell...
  • Had a fourth-down touchdown pass to tie it by Williams to undrafted rookie Jahdae Walker in the corner of the end zone...
  • And had the Packers lose the ball on a fourth-down fumble in overtime, possibly at the edge of field goal range.
  • A top moment needs to carry a big impact and this most unlikely of comebacks ended the Packers' dominance of the Bears at Soldier Field while giving the Bears the win they needed to go on and take the NFC North for the first time since 2018.
  • And it also set off a wild frenzy of people buying cheese grater hats.

Beyond that, they could choose any of several ridiculous Bears comebacks but the other one that could fit in as the year's top NFL moment was Williams' 58-yard touchdown pass to Colston Loveland against Cincinnati.

The Bears seemed beaten by Joe Flacco after a blown onside kick contributed to squandering a two-touchdown lead in the closing seconds. But Williams had them at their 42 after his 14-yard scramble. With 25 seconds left, he dropped back and rifled it 22 yards to the middle of the field in a crowd, and Colston Loveland caught it on the edge of field goal range on the Bengals' 36.

Loveland was hit by Jordan Battle, spun out of the tackle then outraced the entire Bengals secondary to the touchdown that won the game 47-42 in possibly the wildest finish until the comeback win over Green Bay.

The Bears deserve some type of recognition for this surreal season of comebacks, and NFL Moment of the Year seems appropriate.

It’s not necessarily a championship moment but one that captures the season. Things like Justin Tucker’s 66-yard field goal or Justin Jefferson’s one-handed catch that merely set up the winning points have won in the past.

There was no bigger moment than Moore’s catch and the wild celebration in triggered for a playoff team.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.