It was a tough play, but one Allen Robinson usually makes.
On a 20-yard back-shoulder pass down the right sideline from Nick Foles in the first quarter against the Buccaneers on Thursday night, a tightly covered Robinson turned away from cornerback Carlton Davis to get his hands on the ball at the Buccaneers 16-yard line — only to inadvertently deflect it to Davis for an interception.
Davis returned the pick 34 yards to mid-field and the Buccaneers scored five plays later on Tom Brady’s two-yard pass to wide receiver Mike Evans for a 10-0 lead.
Undaunted, Robinson responded with a 13-yard catch on the Bears’ first touchdown drive and a seven-yard catch moments later on another touchdown drive that gave the Bears a 14-13 halftime lead — it was the key turnaround that helped the Bears rally for a 20-19 victory.
“First and foremost, I’ll definitely take a lot of the blame for that,” Robinson said. “I have to continue to make more plays. I know I gotta play better than I did, down the stretch for us and being successful as an offense.”
Despite the mishap on the interception, Robinson finished with 10 receptions for 90 yards. He also gained a bit of revenge against Davis. On a third-and-seven play in the fourth quarter, Robinson drew a pass interference penalty on Davis for a 19-yard gain. Instead of having to punt, the Bears drove for 47-yard field goal by Cairo Santos that gave the Bears a 17-16 lead with 10:34 to play.
Robinson found a way to make an impact. But it’s been a weird season for him. When he did not get a contract extension prior to the season, he passive-aggressively vented on social media, which made the issue public. The Bears’ offense has been erratic and already Matt Nagy has switched quarterbacks, from Mitch Trubisky to Foles.
And Robinson’s on an uncanny run of bad luck with balls that should be his but turn into interceptions. The play against the Bucs was the third time in five games that has happened.
Against the Giants in Week 2, cornerback James Bradberry made a fabulous play to steal the ball from Robinson with his back to the quarterback.
Against the Falcons the following week, Robinson appeared to initially catch a 21-yard touchdown pass from Foles, but Falcons cornerback Darqueze Dennard stole that from him. More often than not, the “held ball” goes to the offensive player, but replay officials didn’t see it that way.
It’s no surprise that the even-keeled Robinson has persevered through the adversity to be on pace for his best season with the Bears. Through five games he has 35 receptions for 421 yards (12.0 yards per catch and two touchdowns. He’s on a pace for 112 receptions for 1,347 yards and six touchdowns.
And the Bears’ offense is in position to improve with Foles replacing Trubisky.
“Once he gets going and gets in a rhythm, I think everybody sees what he’s capable of in terms of the rhythm we have and how we can move the ball down the field,” Robinson said when asked about Foles. “There were times [against the Buccaneers] where we didn’t have any penalties or any second-and-extremely-longs or third-and-extremely-longs. We moved the ball and made it seem pretty effortless — guys just making a play. We know the capability we have. I feel like we are trending in the right direction.”
