If there’s one snapshot from the Bears’ 34-30 loss to the Lions on Sunday, it’s Mitch Trubisky grasping for a football that was knocked out of his hands at his own 7-yard line as the Lions recovered his fumble and eventually turned it into the game-winning touchdown.
But the Bears’ failures were far more widespread than just Trubisky, who otherwise played well enough to win.
There were many costly moments for the Bears during a game in which they had a 10-point lead and the ball with five minutes left. Here they are in reverse chronological order:
Montgomery comes up short
The Bears’ scramble for a late escape ended when running back David Montgomery couldn’t convert a fourth-and-one with 16 seconds remaining.
It’s important to remember, though, that all this would’ve given them is one or two plays from the Lions’ 19-yard line to go for the winning touchdown. Victory still would’ve been a long shot. Montgomery reached with the ball as he went down, and film review showed the officials were correct to mark him decisively short of the first down.
Montgomery did what he could. The big lapse here was by right tackle Germain Ifedi, who could’ve helped Montgomery secure the first down by holding off Lions backup defensive tackle Kevin Strong for just one more millisecond.
Robinson forgets where he is
It’s hard to hammer wide receiver Allen Robinson for an occasional mistake considering he has been incredibly steady in a very unsteady Bears offense, but this one was bad.
On the play before Montgomery’s fourth-and-one try, Trubisky hit Robinson near the right sideline on third-and-five for what was already a three-yard gain at the time of the catch. Robinson had more than enough room to get two more yards for the first down because he shook Lions cornerback Amani Oruwariye so badly that he fell down.
Robinson, however, ducked out of bounds just short of the first-down marker at the 19. It was important to stop the clock with 16 seconds left, but he could’ve given up one more second to pick up the first down. He could have even simply reached forward with the ball.
Trubisky lacks awareness
Trubisky has 26 career fumbles in 46 starts, and there have been some costly ones in the past two seasons. The notable ones that immediately come to mind are his non-contact fumble that led to the Chargers game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter last season, his lost fumble that the Packers returned for a touchdown two weeks ago and this one with 1:46 left.
Fumbles continue to be an issue.
“Continue to be an issue? I mean, it was last week and this week,” Trubisky said. “I’m emphasizing ball security in practice. That’s something I always do.”
This fumble came because he had no sense that Lions defensive end Romeo Okwara was coming from his right side, and Okwara knocked the ball free as Trubisky got ready to throw.
This play call never should’ve happened, of course. And Ifedi got dominated. But if Trubisky had tucked it and taken the sack, the Bears would’ve punted it and had a much better chance to win.
Ill-fated special teams gamble
Why were the Bears backed up so badly in the first place? A gamble that backfired on the preceding kickoff.
With the Bears protecting against an onside kick, wide receiver Darnell Mooney had no blocking for his return. He caught it at the 6 and got to the 11.
“It’s kind of a Catch-22 because if ... you get caught off guard and they get the onside kick, you’re in trouble,” coach Matt Nagy said. “What we wanted to do is be able to protect for that onside kick, but still [do] a little bit better of a job than returning it to where we got it.
“You can certainly go either way. We decided to go that way with the onside kick, to protect [against] that.”
Terrible third-down play
The Bears could’ve expanded their lead to 33-20 or better had they converted a third-and-four at the Lions’ 40-yard line with 7:32 left. They overcame left tackle Charles Leno’s holding penalty on second down to get to a manageable third, but the play was a disaster.
Under immediate pressure, Trubisky threw a short pass to the right for Cordarrelle Patterson, who could get only one hand on the ball and didn’t make the catch. Even if he had, he still would’ve been at least two yards short of the first down.
Botched extra point
All points count the same, so when Cairo Santos’ extra point got blocked in the first quarter, it completely changed the Bears’ scenario at the end.
Okwara blew through rookie offensive lineman Arlington Hambright and Alex Bars on the left side of the Bears’ line with minimal resistance and stuffed the kick with his right hand. It was the first missed extra point by the Bears this season, keeping their lead at 9-0, and it would’ve been inconsequential had they continued rolling.
Instead, they trailed by four in the final minutes. That made a field goal pointless, which was unfortunate for the Bears because they reached the Lions’ 29-yard line with about a minute left.
