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The Green Bay Packers stunned the Chicago Bears on Sunday, winning 20-19 after blocking a field goal as time expired to secure the victory.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus wasn’t happy with the officials on the play and said the organization will submit a video to the NFL to show that a penalty should have been called on the Packers, noting they “were on our long snapper,” according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network:
It remains to be seen whether the NFL will agree with Chicago’s grievance. That’s out of the organization’s hands now, but what was in Chicago’s control was the handling of the final drive.
With 35 seconds and one timeout remaining, the Bears called a run play for Roschon Johnson, who gained two yards. That put the team in range for a 46-yard field-goal attempt. Rather than run another play to possibly get closer for kicker Cairo Santos, the Bears let the clock run down to three seconds before calling the timeout.
That approach surprised the Packers in particular:
“I will say this: [Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia] said to our team last night, ‘I will not understand if we come out of this game without a block, whether field goal or PAT,'” Packers coach Matt LaFleur told reporters. “So, great job from our special teams coaches.”
However, Eberflus defended his late-game approach.
“They were loading the box there,” he told reporters. “You could say you could do that for sure, maybe get a couple more yards, but you’re also going to risk fumbling and different things there. We felt where we were, if we’re at the 36 or 35, you definitely want to do that because you want to get it inside there. I felt very confident where we were at that time with the wind and where we were on the field.”
It was the second time this season that Santos had a field goal blocked. And it was the second time this year the Bears have snatched a loss from the jaws of victory on the final play of the game, as the Washington Commanders beat them in Week 8 on a Hail Mary touchdown pass.
Had both of those games gone Chicago’s way, the team would be sitting at 6-4 and right in the mix for a wild-card berth. Instead, the Bears are 4-6, mired in a four-game losing streak and currently sit at 12th in the NFC.
“It’s almost comical,” Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson told reporters of the team’s close calls during that run. “The luck of the damn draw at this point. We’ve got to figure it out, how to be better.”
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