Keisean Nixon provokes a lot of mixed feelings in people. Okay, not super mixed. A lot of people, if not most, are pretty down on Nixon as the Packers’ top cornerback.
But it’s not all bad, and last season Nixon gave us one of the most memorable images of the century-long Packers/Bears rivalry. Here’s our top play of 2025, the moment when Nixon put a stop to the Bears’ comeback efforts.
The game
The Packers were rolling as they prepared for their first 2025 meeting with the Bears in Week 14. They were 8-3-1
and riding a three-game winning streak, having just handled the Lions on Thanksgiving before a national television audience the week prior. Everything was clicking: Jordan Love was hot, Josh Jacobs was dinged up but gutting out great performances, and Micah Parsons was at the peak of his Packers’ performances.
The Bears, too, were humming along. They were 9-3 and on a five-game winning streak and seemed to have really found their stride after opening the season 0-2. It looked for all the world like the teams were setting up for a classic rivalry matchup, and a classic is exactly what fans got.
After a scoreless first period, the Packers and Bears traded punches for most of the next three quarters. The Packers would scrap their way to a lead, but the Bears would come roaring back. The Packers put themselves ahead 28-21 after a long, gutsy fourth quarter drive that included one of Josh Jacobs’ great runs of the 2025 season, but there were still more than three minutes on the clock, and the Bears had a chance to tie the game with a touchdown.
The situation
Caleb Williams and the Bears set sail from their own 26 for their would-be game-tying drive, and right away it looked like they had something cooking. Caleb Williams found Luther Burden for a 27-yard strike on the first play of the drive, immediately getting the Bears into Packers territory. They didn’t slow down. Two plays later, a 24-yard completion moved the to the Packers’ 23-yard line, and two runs by Kyle Monangai set up a high-stakes 3rd and 1 play on the Packers’ 14.
The Packers stuffed Monangai’s third attempt, putting everything on the line on fourth down.
With 27 seconds remaining, the Bears called time out to scheme up the perfect play. Seeing how they lined up, the Packers called a timeout of their own, setting the stage for what may have been the most dramatic single play of the Packers’ season to that point.
The play
It nearly was the perfect play.
The Bears sent heavy motion to the right side of the formation, then peeled Caleb Williams back on a bootleg to the left, giving him short and deep options as he moved toward the sideline.
Not wanting to give up a first down on a short completion, most of the Packers’ defense rallied to the flat, leaving tight end Cole Kmet almost completely alone in the end zone.
Almost.
Keisean Nixon, aligned to the other side of the formation, had spotted Kmet leaking deep, perhaps recalling a similar play the Bears had run the week prior. He trailed the tight end and, when Williams spotted Kmet in the end zone and lofted a potential game-tying past, Nixon leaped and ended the Bears comeback chances with an interception.
In truth, he wasn’t even supposed to be there. Nixon was supposed to be covering D.J. Moore, who had run a short route through the wash at the line of scrimmage at the snap. But seeing Kmet uncovered, Nixon pulled off his man and drifted deep.
“It wasn’t my man and my guy went behind the line of scrimmage,” Nixon said postgame. “I was chasing, and I just saw somebody go free. I just chased him. Wasn’t even my man.”
Whose man was it? Evan Williams. He said he made an “instinct” play to go to the flat, leaving Kmet open in the end zone. Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley was a little less charitable.
“Evan should have stayed on his man. That man would have been covered, and the ball would have never gone over there,” Hafley said. “He would have either been pulled up or had to outrun [Edgerrin] Cooper for the first down.”
The impact
His man or not, Nixon made the play, and the Packers kneeled out the clock from there, moving their record to 9-3-1 on the season.
It was as exciting of a play as you could imagine in a rivalry game, but unfortunately, it was probably the last high point of the Packers’ season. A week later, their season came undone in Denver. A week after that, they lost an overtime heartbreaker to the Bears — though “lost” might be less accurate than “laid down and handed the Bears the game.” A week after that, having lost Jordan Love to a concussion early in the second Bears’ game, the Packers were thoroughly handled by the Baltimore Ravens, then closed out the season with their JV squad falling to the Minnesota Vikings.
And then we all know what happened in the Wildcard Round. Perhaps it was somewhat poetic that after breaking the Bears’ hearts in Week 14, Nixon played a key role in bungling the Packers’ late game efforts in their playoff loss.
But whatever happened after, Nixon provided quite a moment with his heady play in Week 14. It’s fitting that it’s the very best of our top plays of the year. Anything that happened after is worth forgetting, but Nixon’s leaping pick will always be one of the lasting images of the season.
