Bears look to bounce back against Garrett, Browns with rematch against Packers looming

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears were rolling along and on top of the NFC before they got tripped up at Green Bay last week.

They'll get their shot at payback when Jordan Love and the Packers visit Soldier Field next week. But before they can turn their attention toward the rematch with their rivals, they'll need to deal with Myles Garrett when they host the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

“Some people will call this a classic trap game or whatever it may be," safety Kevin Byard said. "I don’t really believe in trap games in the league. I think every single week you have to bring your best ball regardless of records.”

The Bears (9-4) had won five straight and nine of 10 before losing 28-21 at Green Bay last week, when Caleb Williams got intercepted in the end zone in the closing minute. They fell behind the first-place Packers in the NFC North and plummeted all the way from first to seventh in a crowded conference race.

With little room for error, they can't afford to look past Garrett and the Browns. The four-time All-Pro has 20 sacks and needs just 2 1/2 to match the NFL single-season record shared by New York Giants Hall of Famer Michael Strahan (2001) and Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt (2021).

“We have goals, and we know what’s out in front of us," Bears coach Ben Johnson said. "And so, it’s just that awareness that every game matters. Every game matters. That’s where this week, you go from an emotional rivalry game, like we just played. This week is equally important. We need this win. We desperately need this win.”

The Bears secured a winning season for the first time since the 2018 team won the NFC North when they beat defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia in Week 13. Their most recent trip to the playoffs came two years later, and despite a big jump in Johnson's first season, a postseason appearance is no sure thing.

The schedule takes a tough turn after this week, with the final three games against the Packers, at San Francisco and against Detroit at home. The Bears and 49ers have identical records, and the Lions (8-5) pounded Chicago in Week 2.

Cleveland, which has lost two straight, is last in the AFC North. The Tennessee Titans outlasted the Browns 31-29 last week.

Rookie Shedeur Sanders is coming off the best performance of his young career. The former Colorado star, who fell to the fifth round in the draft, threw three touchdown passes, ran for a score and finished with 364 yards against Tennessee. He joined Joe Burrow as the only rookie QBs in league history with at least 350 yards passing, three TDs and a rushing TD in a game.

Sanders could be challenged this week. Though the Bears tend to give up big chunks of yards, they also lead the league with 18 interceptions and 27 takeaways.

“That’s a statistic that lets you know that they’re a good team," he said. "But I think when you approach each and every week, I think you know that the defenders are capable of catching an interception.”

Williams and Sanders had quite the showdown when USC visited Colorado in 2023.

Williams completed 30 of 40 passes for 403 yards and six touchdowns, and the Trojans won a shootout, 48-41. Sanders was almost as good, finishing 30 of 45 for 371 yards and four scores.

“It was a good atmosphere, good game," Williams said. "We ended up coming out with the victory and Shedeur was a hell of a player.”

Williams hopes for a similar outcome this time. It wouldn't hurt if he ended his string of inconsistent performances. The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner has completed fewer than 60% of his passes in six straight games and is at 57.8% for the season.

The Bears have faced their share of elite pass rushers, including Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson, Las Vegas’ Maxx Crosby and Green Bay’s Micah Parsons. But Garrett poses a different challenge.

He has sacks in seven straight games — and 16 in that span. Three times this season he has recorded three or more in a game, and he had five in a Week 8 loss at New England.

Cleveland will have its ninth different offensive line starting combination Sunday with center Ethan Pocic lost for the season after suffering an Achilles tendon injury in last week's loss to Tennessee. Luke Wypler will get the start.

Right guard Wyatt Teller will miss his second straight game and right tackle Jack Conklin remains in concussion protocol. Teven Jenkins is expected to start at right guard against his former team while KT Leveston would be at tackle if Conklin can't go.

With the National Weather Service predicting a high temperature near 14 on Sunday, this could be one of the coldest games at Soldier Field.

Chicago's coldest home game by temperature was 2 degrees with a minus-13 wind chill against Green Bay on Dec. 22, 2008. The coldest by wind chill was minus-15 against the Packers on Dec. 18, 1983, when the temperature was 3.

After allowing Tennessee's Tony Pollard to run for a career-high 161 yards last week, it doesn't get any easier for the Browns' run defense. The Bears are averaging 152.6 yards on the ground, second-best in the league, and have a formidable duo in D'Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai.

AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy in Cleveland contributed to this report.

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Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95) reacts during the second half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams looks to pass against the Green Bay Packers during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday closed out the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year, capping a yearlong celebration of Christianity that saw some 33 million pilgrims flock to Rome and a historic papal transition from one American pope to another.

With cardinals and diplomats looking on, Leo kneeled down in prayer on the stone floor at the threshold of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. He then stood up and pulled the two doors shut, symbolically completing the rarest of Jubilees: one that was opened by a feeble Pope Francis in December 2024, continued during his funeral and the conclave, and then was closed by Francis' successor a year later.

Only once before, in 1700, has a Holy Year been opened by one pope and closed by another.

Tuesday's ceremony, at the start of Mass celebrating the feast of Epiphany, capped a dizzying year of special audiences, Masses and meetings that dominated Leo’s first months as pontiff and in many ways put his own agenda on hold.

As if to signal his pontificate now can begin in earnest, Leo has summoned the world’s cardinals to the Vatican for two days of meetings starting Wednesday to discuss governing the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church. On the agenda is the issue of the liturgy, suggesting Leo is diving head-first into the divisions within the church over the celebration of the old Latin Mass.

For the Vatican, a Holy Year is a centuries-old tradition of the faithful making pilgrimages to Rome every 25 years to visit the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and receive indulgences for the forgiveness of their sins if they pass through the Holy Door.

For Rome, it’s a chance to take advantage of public funds, in this case some 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion), to carry out long-delayed projects to lift the city out of years of neglect and bring it up to modern, European standards.

The Vatican on Monday claimed 33,475,369 pilgrims had participated in the Jubilee, but the Vatican’s Holy Year organizer, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, acknowledged the number was only a rough estimate and could include double counting. At a press conference, neither he nor Italian officials provided a breakdown between Holy Year pilgrims and Rome’s overall tourist figures for the same period.

Rome’s relationship with Jubilees dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII inaugurated the first Holy Year in what historians say marked the definitive designation of Rome as the center of Christianity. Even then, the number of pilgrims was so significant that Dante referred to them in his “Inferno.”

Massive public works projects have long accompanied Holy Years, including the creation of the Sistine Chapel (commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV for the Jubilee of 1475) and the big Vatican garage (for the 2000 Jubilee under St. John Paul II).

Some works have been controversial, such as the construction of Via della Conciliazione, the broad boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square. An entire neighborhood was razed to make it for the 1950 Jubilee.

The main public works project for the 2025 Jubilee was an extension of that boulevard: A pedestrian piazza along the Tiber linking Via della Conciliazione to the nearby Castel St. Angelo, with the major road that had separated them diverted to an underground tunnel.

Leo has already announced that the next Jubilee will be in 2033, to commemorate what Christians believe was the A.D. 33 death and resurrection of Christ.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica to mark the start of the Catholic Jubilee Year, at the Vatican, Dec. 24, 2024. (Alberto Pizzoli/Pool Photo via AP, file)

Members of the clergy arrive ahead of Pope Leo XIV for the closing of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica to end the 2025 ordinary Jubilee year, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Yara Nardi/Pool photo via AP)

Members of the clergy arrive ahead of Pope Leo XIV for the closing of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica to end the 2025 ordinary Jubilee year, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Yara Nardi/Pool photo via AP)

Pope Leo XIV closes St. Peter's Basilica Holy Door to end the 2025 ordinary Jubilee year, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Yara Nardi/Pool photo via AP)

Pope Leo XIV closes St. Peter's Basilica Holy Door to end the 2025 ordinary Jubilee year, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Yara Nardi/Pool photo via AP)