On second-and-goal from the Chargers 4-yard line in the final minute of the first half Sunday, the Bears used three tight ends with an empty backfield and versatile wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson lined up wide left.
Patterson went in motion, and caught a screen pass, theoretically behind a wall of blockers who would clear a path to the end zone. But Chargers cornerback Michael Davis, who was covering Patterson on the outside and simply followed his motion, was unblocked and tackled Patterson for a one-yard gain. Try again.
You could pick a red-zone play — any red-zone play — to illustrate the Bears’ offensive struggles in a 17-16 loss to the Chargers at Soldier Field. While Eddy Piñeiro’s missed 41-yard field goal sealed their fate, the Bears lamented four first-half failures in the red zone that netted nine points as the bigger culprit in their third consecutive loss. The Bears ran 16 plays in the red zone in the first half and gained 14 yards.
It was even worse the closer they got. The Bears ran 11 plays inside the 10 in the first half and gained three yards. Their biggest play officially was no play — a pass interference penalty on Chargers cornerback Casey Hayward following the Patterson play that gave the Bears a first-and-goal at the 1 with 29 seconds left in the half.
But Mitch Trubisky threw incomplete to a well-covered Adam Shaheen, David Montgomery was stopped for no gain — and with no time outs, the Bears could only scramble for a hurried spike with one second left to set up Piñeiro for a 19-yard field goal.
A run on second-and-goal with no time outs and 25 seconds remaining? It seemed like the Bears cheated themselves out of a valuable play that might get them into the end zone.
“Yeah that [run play] got drawn out,” coach Matt Nagy said. “We knew what we were doing. We had a plan that when we were going to go out there with the clock. When you go back and look at it, you’ll see it took awhile.”
With time running out, Nagy’s only option was a wasteful spike.
“There were guys down on the ground, and they couldn’t get up,” Nagy said. “There was like a big pile there. So when I saw that, that’s when I said to myself, ‘Uh, oh. This is going to be close. And you don’t really expect that, but for whatever reason that happened.”
For whatever reason, the Bears were unable to capitalize on advantageous situations. After Kyle Fuller’s interception return to the Chargers’ 4-yard line in the first quarter of a scoreless game, the Bears play-calling and execution quickly squandered the momentum.
Trubisky’s first-and-goal pass was to Patterson, who immediately was thumped by Davis for no gain. Incomplete passes to well-covered Trey Burton and well-covered Shaheen forced the Bears to settle for Piñeiro’s 22-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.
Does something change about the Bears’ mentality when they get into the red zone? It’s one of many problems the Bears have to solve.
“It’s a good question,” Trubisky said. “I think there’s a lot of things that one when you get closer to the goal line. It could be a mentality thing where [it’s a matter of] who wants it more. It’s only 10 yards [or less] top go.
“But they definitely played well down there and we’ve got to find ways to punch it in … giving our guys opportunities to make plays. And I think just credit to [the Chargers] — when they got down there, they played really tough defense.”
