MINNEAPOLIS — Two-thousand seventeen plays on offense and defense later, the Bears’ wildly successful 2018 regular season came to an end Sunday with a 24-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings. The Bears finished their remarkable worst-to-first turnaround season with a 12-4 record, representing almost as many wins this year as they had in the previous three years under John Fox (14).

Of those 2,017 plays, though, there are 10 that stand out when defining the 12-win, division champion level of success this team has had under Matt Nagy in 2018:

10. Week 17 at Minnesota: Jordan Howard’s 42-yard run

The Bears’ second offensive play of Sunday’s game was a tone-setter, with the Bears’ line — buoyed by the return of Kyle Long — dominating the point of attack and opening up a hole for Howard, who then turned around safety Harrison Smith with a juke on his way to a 42-yard gain. That run was Howard’s longest of the season, but more importantly sent a message to a listless Vikings team that the Bears were still giving maximum effort despite having little to play for. Tight end Trey Burton called it a “dagger,” and Howard made it count a few plays later with a six-yard touchdown. That the Bears didn’t back off in Week 17, with the NFC North clinched and a first-round bye a longshot, was fitting with the kind of mentality Nagy instilled in his team all season. The Bears responded well to it, and in the process knocked the Vikings out of the playoffs on their way to a 12-4 record.

9. Week 7 vs. New England: Mitch Trubisky’s touchdown scramble

Trubisky covered nearly 72 yards to gain eight on this play, with Cody Whitehair leading the way with a punishing final block of defensive back Duron Harmon.

Mitchell Trubisky covered 71.9 yards of distance on his 8-yard touchdown run, the most scramble distance a quarterback has covered on any play this season.#NEvsCHI #DaBears pic.twitter.com/dTT3QJYZe9 — Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 21, 2018

But beyond the spectacular nature of this play, it put on display a truth about the Bears’ offense: Trubisky could beat teams with his legs, and is particularly adept at sensing and avoiding pressure. Trubisky finished the year having only been sacked 24 times, while rushing for 421 yards and 29 first downs. Trubisky’s running ability is a legitimate threat, one opposing defensive coordinators have to account for even if his passing production has been uneven this year.

8. Week 11 vs. Minnesota: Khalil Mack’s forced fumble

It’s hard to pick one play that represents just how good the Bears’ run defense has been this year, but in a game that was a massive turning point in the Bears’ season this play stands out. The Vikings had just entered the red zone in the first quarter when Mack stopped running back Dalvin Cook for no gain and stripped him, recovering his own forced fumble. The Bears held Cook to 12 yards on nine carries in that game; the most yards a running back gained against the Bears’ defense at Soldier Field was 55 (Jamaal Williams in Week 15). For all the flash plays this defense made this season — sacks, interceptions, touchdowns, etc. — at its core, this is a dominant run defense, one that’s able to set the tone for an entire game.

7. Week 2 vs. Seattle: Prince Amukamara’s pick six

Eight days after blowing that 20-point lead against the Green Bay Packers, the Bears needed to show resiliency on Monday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks. They took a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter, then quickly allowed Seattle back into the game with a Russell Wilson touchdown with about 10 minutes remaining. A drive then sputtered at midfield, giving the ball back to Wilson with a chance to tie the game.

But Amukamara jumped a route, picking of his first pass in nearly three years and taking it 49 yards to the house, all but sealing the Bears’ first win of the year. In retrospect, it was the start of a trend of big, game-shifting plays by this defense late in games. At the time, though, it powered the Bears to an important victory, one that proved the aftereffects of that loss to Green Bay would not linger in a bad way throughout the season.

6. Week 13 at New York: Oompa Loompa

The Bears’ improbable, furious comeback against the New York Giants was capped with a take on the “Philly Special” — but the play didn’t go exactly to plan. It called for Tarik Cohen to pass to Chase Daniel, but the Giants sniffed that out. So Cohen had to float a pass to Anthony Miller with time expiring and the Bears needing a touchdown to tie the game — and completed the pass. While the Bears went on to lose in overtime, that Nagy called for “Oompa Loompa” in a do-or-die situation was indicative of the kind of coach he is: Someone who consistently thinks outside the box of conventional wisdom and isn’t scared to be labeled as “too cute.” And that approach has worked wonders for his NFC North champion team.

5. Week 1 at Green Bay: Khalil Mack’s pick-six

Amukamara pointed to this play as the one that truly opened his eyes to how good Mack could — and would — be for the Bears in 2018. When Mack was in the right position to pick off an ill-designed and poorly-executed screen throw from DeShone Kizer, and then dashed into the end zone, it capped one of the most dominant halves of football a defensive player has had in the NFL this year.

“What really ignited me was the score, the pick-six, and how we all dogpiled him,” Amukamara said. “I mean, a guy that we had just knew for a week, just how we jumped on him, I really believe — I think that ignited me and that set the steps for our season and what was to come.”

4. Week 12 at Detroit: Kyle Fuller’s game-sealing interception

Jackson’s pick-six was a massive moment in this gritty Week 12 win, but it misses the cut in the top 10 because of what happened after it: The Lions drove 64 yards to the Bears’ 11-yard line, needing a touchdown to tie the game inside the two-minute warning. The Bears’ defense looked gassed, having given an extraordinary effort only about 85 hours earlier on Sunday night against the Vikings. The defense had to dig deep to come up with a play, and after Danny Trevathan galvanized his teammates with a pre-play speech, Fuller delivered with an interception in the end zone. It was the biggest play of the year for Fuller, who’s developed into one of the league’s best cornerbacks and has been one of the most important reasons for the Bears’ success this year.

3. Week 14 vs. Los Angeles: Santa’s Sleigh

It’s comical to think of the circumstances surrounding this play: The only touchdown in a game between two division winners, one of which possessed a high-scoring offense, came on a play with six offensive linemen and four defensive linemen on the field — and no wide receivers, tight ends or running backs. Trubisky faked a handoff to Hicks, a defensive tackle, and threw a touchdown to Bradley Sowell, an offensive lineman. If “Oompa Loompa” showed Nagy would call any play in any situation, this only cemented it — it came on third down, after all. And it also further proved how much fun this Bears team is, something that hasn’t been said in Chicago or around the NFL in an awfully long time.

2. Week 1 at Green Bay: Khalil Mack’s strip-sack-recovery

While the Bears would go on to blow a 20-point lead and lose to the Packers in Nagy’s coaching debut, Mack’s debut was a clear sign of just how good this team could be with him on it. While the pick-six “ignited” the Bears, as Amukamara said, this play was the one that made it clear just how massive an impact Mack could make: With the Packers driving inside the Bears’ 10-yard line, Mack — all at once — sacked and stripped Kizer, and recovered the fumble he forced, snatching the ball from the quarterback's grasp. Plays like this became the expectation for Mack in 2018, and he thoroughly delivered on it.

1. Week 11 vs. Minnesota: Eddie Jackson’s pick-six

The Bears knew they were a good team long before Jackson stepped in front of a Kirk Cousins pass, returned it into the north end zone at Soldier Field and conducted an orchestra in an instantly-viral celebration. But this fourth quarter pick six was still a turning point for the Bears’ season, vaulting them atop the NFC North and ahead of the preseason favorite Vikings. In a way, when Jackson arrived in the end zone, it felt like the Bears arrived, too.

Six honorable mentions, in order:

Khalil Mack’s forced fumble in Week 3 at Arizona: With the Bears losing by a point in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals’ offense got a spark when Christian Kirk beat Kevin Toliver for a 32-yard gain to charge to the doorstep of the Bears’ red zone. But Mack knocked the ball out from a scrambling Sam Bradford, with Danny Trevathan recovering it and the Bears driving for a go-ahead (and ultimately game-winning) field goal after it.

Mitch Trubisky’s first half three-yard touchdown to Taylor Gabriel in Week 4 vs. Tampa Bay: While this wasn’t the most impressive throw Trubisky made in his record-setting first half, it was the fifth touchdown he threw in the first two quarters — which buoyed the confidence of Nagy and this whole team, showing them just how good Trubisky could be on a given day. Bonus points for this play being “Willy Wonka” too.

Akiem Hicks’ forced fumble in Week 6 at Miami: The Bears were one yard away from losing in brutal fashion to the Dolphins, but Hicks somehow managed to strip running back Kenyan Drake, with the Bears recovering the ball and driving for a game-winning field goal attempt. While Cody Parkey missed that kick, that Hicks fumble again proved the Bears defense was able to come up with a critical play no matter how bleak or desperate the circumstances.

Eddie Jackson’s pick-six in Week 12 at Detroit: This was the most difficult cut from the top 10, since it provided the game-winning touchdown at a time when the Bears’ defense seemed to be tired and on its heels. But that the Bears still needed Fuller’s interception to seal the win lessened this play’s impact, even if it still was tremendous.

Eddie Goldman’s safety in Week 14 vs. Los Angeles: This play swung momentum to the Bears and preceded the scoring drive that ended with “Santa’s Sleigh,” giving the Bears a nine-point advantage they didn’t allow the Rams to chip away at for nearly the entirety of the second half. It also encapsulated how miserable a night the Bears’ defense dealt Jared Goff, who had his worst game as a pro on that Sunday night at Soldier Field.

Eddie Jackson’s game-sealing interception in Week 15 vs. Green Bay: This play was a fitting way for the Bears to effectively clinch their first NFC North title in eight years. Of course it was the Bears to end Aaron Rodgers’ record-breaking streak of 402 passes without an interception, and of course it was Eddie Jackson who did it. While Jackson was injured on the play, it capped a standout season in which the second-year safety proved to be one of the best players at his position in the league.