Bears safety Kevin Byard has played a lot of NFL games, but none of them looked quite like the one he was part of in Cincinnati on Sunday.
The Bears took a 14-point lead on the Bengals with under five minutes left and then picked off Joe Flacco on the ensuing drive, so it looked like they would be moving to 5-3 with a road win. A three-and-out sent the ball back to the Bengals and Flacco sandwiched a pair of touchdown passes around a successful onside kick to push the Bengals to a one-point lead with 54 seconds left to play.
That proved to be enough time for quarterback Caleb Williams to connect with tight end Colston Loveland for a 58-yard touchdown and the Bears sealed their 47-42 win by picking Flacco’s Hail Mary off as time expired. When it was all over, Byard said the game was “taking years off my life” and that he’s been around long enough to know that you never look down your nose at a victory.
“We’ll [never apologize](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46824776/bears-deliver-final-punch-wild-shootout-win-bengals) for winning in this league. It’s very hard to do,” Byard said, via ESPN.com.
The Bears were on the wrong side of some heartbreakers last season and that helps underscore Byard’s point that you have to celebrate wins however they come in the NFL.