LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Ben Johnson put a football in his right hand and held it up. It was the second game ball the Bears head coach would bestow after a 31-27 comeback playoff win over the Green Bay Packers.

The first predictably went to rookie tight end Colston Loveland, who had eight catches for 137 yards.

The next one, to a defender, wasn’t quite so obvious.

“One guy caught my eye,” Johnson said. “And it might not show up on the stat sheet, but he was around that quarterback in the second half. Montez Sweat, where you at?”

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Loveland’s stat line objectively was game-ball worthy. Sweat’s three tackles and three quarterback hits? Maybe not.

That’s why the man himself didn’t see it coming.

“It meant a lot,” Sweat said in a Wednesday press conference. “I wasn’t necessarily expecting it. But it meant a lot in a playoff game in a big atmosphere.” 

Johnson was right that Sweat’s impact could be felt late in that dramatic win over the rival Packers. He was a major reason why the Bears got tougher on third down, and on that ill-fated Packers comeback attempt, Sweat harassed Love nonstop.

The Bears will need more of that Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams at Soldier Field, with quarterback Matthew Stafford as dangerous as anyone when given time to throw. He’s not terribly mobile, but he’s smart and savvy, and he gets rid of the ball fast.

That means Sweat must decrease his 3.30-second average time to pressure,  the lowest of his career, per NFL NextGen Stats. On the flip side, he generated a sack on 20.8 percent of his pressures, the best mark since his rookie year.

That stat aside, Sweat has been super productive this season. He finished the regular season with 53 tackles, including 13 for a loss, 10 sacks, 18 quarterback hits and three forced fumbles. That’s the second-best season of his career, behind a 2023 campaign split between Washington and Chicago. He also had 60 total pressures, the second-best mark of his career.

“He’s a guy that we count on, and I know the sack numbers is what everybody looks at when it comes to edge rushers. And he’s at double digits,” Johnson said. “He has played really good football in that regard. But as I’ve told him, as the year’s gone along, for me, it’s not just the sacks. It’s also the pressures and the quarterback hits.

[READ: How Bears’ defense turned on pressure, fueled NFL playoff comeback vs. Packers]

“When you’re watching from the sideline and you’re feeling him affecting the quarterback a different type of way, I do think that’s really important. He has stepped up. I felt like that since the bye week, he’s playing really good in the running game — that gets overlooked — but also in the passing game, I felt him get after the quarterback a little bit more. So when you combine that with a guy like [Austin] Booker on the other side, who I think continues to ascend, I think it gives us a pretty good chance.”

Sweat is enjoying the heck out of this experience.

Finding the joy in work is a big thing for someone who already has the accolades and the massive contract that comes with it. This isn’t Sweat’s first playoff go-round, but last week marked his first postseason win, a momentous occasion that leaves him wanting more.

“I was thinking about it yesterday. This is probably the most fun I’ve had as a player,” Sweat said. “Just playing football, playoff football. It’s fun.”

That follows a miserable 2024 campaign in which the Bears lost a ton, fired a head coach/defensive play-caller in Matt Eberflus and dealt with nagging injuries most of the year.

This experience has been the complete opposite.

“I mean, it’s a sudden change for sure, man,” Sweat said. “I’m just enjoying the moment, taking it day by day. So, yeah, it’s a blessing.” 

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