Bears Beat Panthers By Repeatedly Running Same Play
The Panthers nearly pulled off an upset victory over the Bears in Chicago Sunday that might have saved their season. Instead they blew a 12-point fourth quarter lead and now their season is over. What makes it even more depressing for Panthers fans is that Carolina apparently lost because it allowed Chicago to run the same play over and over. From the Charlotte Observer:
With the Panthers ahead 22-20 following Medlock’s fifth field goal and Chicago needing three to win, the Bears started at their own 22 with 2:20 on the clock. Then Carolina went into a soft zone defense, keeping all the Bears’ receivers in front of them. The problem: There was way too much time left for this strategy. The Bears basically ran the same play all the way down the field – a 10- to 12-yard slant pass to Jay Cutler’s left, usually to Brandon Marshall – and finished the game with a 41-yard field goal at the final gun. Cutler’s completed passes went for 4, 8, 12, 7, 11 and 10 yards. The Panthers weren’t close to touching any of them because they had been instructed to make sure they didn’t get beat deep (the way Atlanta beat Panthers safety Haruki Nakamura in a similar situation earlier this year). Panthers players were careful not to criticize their coaches after the game. But several did point out the Bears kept running the almost identical play. As safety Charles Godfrey said: “They threw the same pass play I think all the way down the field. … That was a great play for that coverage and they just ran that play all the way down the field. And the coverage we were in, we just stayed in that coverage.” Rivera’s reasoning: “We were trying to keep the ball in front of us. It’s one of those things where if you jump it and they double-move you, now all of a sudden it’s a touchdown or the ball is in field goal range. We were trying to make them systematically beat us. They got in field-goal position, and you take your chances at that point.” The part that sticks out to me in that Rivera quote? “We were trying to make them systematically beat us.”
