Bears: How one sequence summarized the whole season

It’s been a rough season for the Chicago Bears and one sequence told the entire story.

The Chicago Bears took care of the New York Giants on Sunday, capping off a 19-14 victory in which the game ended up being a lot closer than it should have been. Despite winning in total yards and time of possession, the game was very much in doubt until the final few minutes.

Even though the Giants came in at 2-8, starting a rookie quarterback in Daniel Jones after benching Eli Manning, the Bears did their best to give the game away.

Unfortunately, finding ways to lose instead of ways to win has come to define this season and has been the biggest difference from last season.

There have been other culprits for sure, like injuries, playcalling, and suspect quarterback play. However, it’s the team’s inability to get out of its own way at times that has come to represent 2019.

Interestingly enough, there was one sequence of plays in which every bugaboo for the Bears was on display. It was one small slice of the game, but in so many ways, it served as a microcosm for what has plagued the team.

We start with the good, which was sack and forced fumble by Khalil Mack, setting the Bears up at the Giants 3-yard line. The short drive culminated in a Mitchell Trubisky quarterback run for a touchdown to put the team up 19-7.

However, that’s where the good ended. And in true 2019 Bear fashion, they follow up a little bit of good with a whole lot of bad, of which there was plenty in this sequence. Let’s put aside for a moment that they couldn’t punch it in from the 3-yard line on two consecutive runs from David Montgomery, which has also been one of their Achilles heels, because there was a whole lot more to dissect.

You see, after Trubisky’s score, the Bears decided to go for a 2-point conversion to extend the lead to 14. However, they couldn’t get the play off in time and had to call a timeout. You read that right — the Bears called a timeout to avoid a delay of game on a 2-point conversion play. Nagy had to have known he was going to do that if they scored, so why wasn’t the play queued up?

But let’s move past that as well because they ultimately executed the play they wanted for the score to Taylor Gabriel. However, it was called back due to a penalty, which has plagued the Bears all season long. Although it was a questionable call, Allen Robinson was called for pass interference, which backed them up to the 23-yard line.

Before they could attempt a 43-yard extra point, the team was penalized again for having too many men in the huddle. This backed them up an additional five yards, making the extra point try a 48-yarder.

Well, if you’ve been following the Bears at all this year, you can guess what happened next. That’s right, Eddy Pineiro missed it.

So if you’re scoring at home, in this one sequence you saw their inability to run the football, poor clock management, multiple penalties, mental mistakes, and a missed kick. When the Bears look back at what went wrong this year, they should start at the 7:02 mark in the third quarter of this game.