As Darnell Mooney literally kicked away the last hope of a winning season, the Bears lost their ninth game of 2023. No NFL team had ever lost when having three interceptions, 3+ sacks, and a two-score lead in the fourth quarter of a game.
The 1994 and 95 teams finished with back-to-back winning seasons. Starting from 1996, Chicago has never had three consecutive winning seasons. Their last winning season was 2018. There has only been seven winning seasons in the last 28 years.
By contrast, when looking at Bears history, Chicago had a grand total of eight losing seasons in the Halas era. Two of those losing seasons occurred when Halas had stepped away from head coaching duties. The Bears never had three consecutive losing seasons. They had a sub-.500 record in back-to-back years just one time, in 1952-53.
Chicago has now had just one winning season (2018) in the last ten years.
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This game is one of three 4th quarter meltdowns and the 6th game of the season, where the outcome could have been a victory, but Chicago keeps finding ways to lose. Sunday’s loss in Cleveland saw breakdowns at EVERY LEVEL.
Looking at the offense, no one made plays. Justin Fields made an amazing athletic play on their only offensive TD of the game. Cleveland is one of the better defenses in the league but had allowed over 60 points in their last two games. The running game was inept. The offense completely stalled when Teven Jenkins left the game after suffering a concussion.
Darnell Mooney’s drop was the ultimate dagger, and the drop earlier in the game by Robert Tonyan was more embarrassing. On their third possession of the game, the Bears had a second down and three from their 26-yard line. Fields rolled to his right and from his own 17-yard line, lofted a perfect ball to Tonyan, hitting him in stride at the Cleveland 32. Tonyan let the ball slip through his hands. Instead of a touchdown or no worse than a first down in the red zone, the Bears had to punt a few plays later.
Trent Taylor muffed two punts on the day. He was able to fall on the ball on the first fumble. Unfortunately, he turned the ball over on his second miscue to the game. The defense bailed out Taylor when Tyrique Stevenson made an amazing diving interception at the goal line.
The defense played solid for three quarters, but faltered badly. Three times this season, the Bears squandered double-digit leads in the last quarter, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Jaquan Brisker got sucked in on Cleveland’s game-tying score. Amari Cooper got around Brisker and ran down the right sideline for a 51-yard score.
On the long play that set up the game-winning field goal, Tyrique Stevenson attempted to throw a shoulder into the legs of David Njoku instead of wrapping up the receiver and driving him to the ground. Njoku kept his balance near the Bears 40 and gained an additional 20 yards to set up the winning kick. Flacco threw for 212 yards in the 4th quarter, handing Chicago another devastating loss.
Coaching ineptitude showed its ugly head once again. The lackadaisical approach on offense when the team had a 10-point lead, was questioned by more than one player after the game. On the Njoku play that set up the winning field goal, the defensive play call had DL Justin Jones dropping back into zone coverage. Flacco exploited that terrible play call and lofted a perfect pass to Njoku.
The Bears have now lost three embarrassing games when leading by at least ten points in the fourth quarter and three other one-score games. They can still drag their way out of the cellar of the NFC North, but any hopes of a postseason berth ended when Mooney literally kicked the game-winning score away to end the game.
News and Notes
The Bears did not receive any help from the officiating crew. Two plays that definitely could have changed the game’s outcome, and both went against Chicago.
On the last play of the first half, Justin Fields was clearly hit after he threw the ball. what should have been roughing the passer was not called. If the call was correctly made, the Bears would have been able to bring in Santos for a field goal attempt at the end of the first half.
On Njoku’s touchdown in the first half, he did NOT get both feet down in bounds. While his toe hits first, the play ended with his entire foot coming down. By rule, if the receiver’s foot comes down, the foot must completely land in the field of play. Njoku’s heel clearly came down beyond the end line. The play should have been reviewed and overturned. Every week the staff at Football Zebras the officials and rules interpretations. They detailed the above rule in their article posted after the game. You can read their story at https://www.footballzebras.com/2023/12/week-15-officiating-liveblog-2023/
