Midway through the second quarter, the Lions were flagged for illegal formation before throwing a three-yard pass on third down to move to the Bears’ 36. Bears coach Matt Nagy declined the penalty, setting up fourth down — and Matt Prater’s 54-yard field goal.
Why not accept the penalty and move them out of field goal range? Inside a windy Soldier Field, the Bears essentially dared Prater to try the field goal — or the Lions to punt.
“We discussed it and we stayed committed with it, and the kid made a -- you’ve got to give credit to him, too,” Nagy said. “He banged a 54-yard field goal in this field, so he’s been known to do some of that.”
Nagy said he understood that the decision “could go either way.”
“You never know what could have happened on that third down,” he said. “They could have got closer. Maybe they didn’t. There’s a lot of things that could have happened. And then maybe they end up kicking a longer field goal than 54, for sure.”
