The Chicago Bears pulled off the stunner of all stunners last week. For decades, the Green Bay Packers had always held onto leads against them in the 4th quarter. It was a sickening routine. Not a soul expected that chilly evening at Soldier Field to be any different. Chicago was down 16-9 with under two minutes left and all their timeouts gone. If they didn’t recover an onside kick, the game was over. Onside kicks have an 8% chance of success. Basically, they were screwed. However, Kevin Byard never lost faith.
The Bears had made crazy things happen all year. Late comebacks had become their identity. They would recover the onside and score. Sure enough, Green Bay bobbled the kick, allowing Josh Blackwell to recover. The offense then marched down the field and, with mere seconds left, reached the end zone on a pass to rookie Jahdae Walker. However, things took an unexpected twist. Byard didn’t understand why head coach Ben Johnson chose to kick an extra point rather than go for a two-point conversion and win. He told this to ESPN.
That is, until he put the pieces together.
Byard: “I went to Harry, and I said, Hey, man, can you kind of walk me through all the overtime stuff, defer or to kick? He kind of just basically told me, like, hey, you know, obviously in overtime, there is no defer, because you basically only kick the ball, there’s no defer, there’s no second half. But right before the overtime, I remember I walked up to Ben and asked him, like, Hey, we’re kicking, right? Just make sure, like, we’re all good with it. And he was like, ‘Yeah, man, we’re kicking. Go get a stop.'”
Byard was surprised his team got to overtime at all Saturday night, given his head coach’s aggressive tendencies.
Byard: “Honestly, [kicking the PAT] was a little bit surprising to me. Obviously, we didn’t talk about it, but we was on the sideline, like, just kind of talking amongst each other, like, if we score right here, we’re going for two, we’re going for the win! Man, I think [Ben] just put his trust in the defense that we was going to go get a stop. No, like I said, it was surprising, because Ben is usually aggressive in those situations. But like I said, he must have known something. It helped us out for sure.”
Kevin Byard and the defense got the extra juice they needed.
Johnson’s decision wasn’t solely about motivating the defense. He had logical reasons. The Bears were at home and clearly had momentum. Choosing overtime made sense. Johnson knew if the defense got a stop, all the Bears would need was a field goal to win. Conversely, even if the Packers managed to score, Chicago would still get a possession to answer, per the overtime rules. He was playing the odds. It turns out that was the smart decision. Reinvigorated, the defense sacked Malik Willis to ensure overtime.
Then, after a strong start to open the extra frame, Green Bay bogged down at Chicago’s 36-yard line. T.J. Edwards stuffed Willis a yard short. The Packers decided to go for it on 4th down. Willis bobbled the snap and fumbled, allowing the Bears to recover. Four plays later, Caleb Williams hit D.J. Moore for the winning touchdown. Kevin Byard couldn’t believe what had just happened, and Johnson had been the puppeteer through all of it. That served as further confirmation the head coach knew his stuff.
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