With nothing on the line but playing spoiler for their rival, the Chicago Bears pulled out the stops in Week 18 with one of the best special team plays of the NFL season.
The Bears opened scoring on Sunday with a punt return for a touchdown aided by some well-executed misdirection. Midway through the first quarter, the Packers punter Daniel Whelan punted from the Chicago 44-yard-line with the game in a scoreless tie.
The punt traveled down the left sideline deep into Bears territory. But Chicago’s punt return team set up down the right sideline and Green Bay’s coverage unit followed. DJ Moore feigned a fair catch at the five-yard line, as the ball landed on the opposite side of the field.
Meanwhile, Bears special teamer Josh Blackwell followed the punt uncovered down the left sideline. He fielded the punt inside the 10-yard line with nobody near him as Whelan appeared to be the only Packers player aware of which direction the punt actually traveled.
By the time Whelan’s teammates realized what was happening, Blackwell found a clear path down the sideline toward the end zone.
He ran untouched for a 94-yard return to give the Bears an early 7-0 lead. He capped the play with a Lambeau Leap after spotting some Bears fans in the front row of the stands.
The touchdown was the first of Blackwell’s three-season NFL career. The return was just the seventh of the season for Blackwell, who’s Chicago’s secondary punt returner behind DeAndre Carter.
At 4-12 entering Sunday’s game, the Bears had long been eliminated from the playoff picture and had nothing to gain on Sunday with a win. But the rival Packers were playing for playoff positioning with a chance to move up from the No. 7 seed to the No. 6 seed in the NFC and a path that avoids playing the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds in the opening rounds of the playoffs.
That was plenty of incentive for Chicago to unload the playbook in its final game of a long-lost season.