Rapid Reaction: Bears lose 42-21
Forgive me if this is a little negative, I normally have a day to let my anger cool before I post. That was disgusting. I’m not sure what the worst part of the game was, it could be the 258 rushing yards the Bears allowed, or the 10 penalties for 84 yards (felt like more), the incompetence of our goal-line offense or Mark Trestman’s bewildering decision making. It all added up to a 42-21 loss to the Rams.
The Bears spotted the Rams 14 points in the first 3 minutes of the game after a 65-yard Tavon Austin run (nice angle Conte) and a Matt Forte fumble that gave the Rams the ball on the Bears 7 yard line. The Bears defense almost held the Rams to a field goal, but Chris Conte had a pass interference on 3rd down giving the Rams new life and a Zac Stacy touchdown on the next play.
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The Bears recovered nicely with an 11 play 90 yard drive, capped off with a 7 yard TD reception by Martellus Bennett. At this point I actually had hope that the Bears could win this one. The o-line did a good job keeping the Rams fierce pass rush at bay and they moved the ball with ease. Unfortunately the defense had to come back on the field.
As good as the Bears first TD drive looked, the Rams next one looked even better. They went 89 yards in nine plays with very little resistance from the Bears defense. The Bears did get their only sack of the game on that drive, so that’s something I guess, but a 35-yard Zac Stacy run got the Rams to the Bears 7 yard line and it was easy from there.
I can’t go through every drive because I might throw my computer in the garbage. I’m really depressed right now. Thanks Bears.
In the 2nd quarter the Bears got their first defensive stop (Monsters of the Midway!) and it actually felt like we had some momentum going. I was legitimately worried that the Rams would score every possession, so things looked a little better at the time. After a 29-yard reverse to Alshon Jeffery, the Bears had the ball at the Rams 27-yard line and then Fiammetta happened. His hold on Jeffery’s run brought the ball back to the Bears 48-yard line and then two plays later his facemask penalty on an incomplete pass kicked off a melee that included Kyle Long whiffing on an attempt to kick a Rams linemen in the face (get your checkbook ready, Kyle) and three penalties on the Bears. It was one of the strangest plays I’ve seen in a while. After all the commotion and penalty yards, the Bears somehow managed to drive 62 yards and score a TD on a 3 yard pass to Marshall. It was a strange drive, but it ended well. It was 21-14 Rams, but for the first time since the opening kickoff it felt like the Bears had a chance to win this one.
Of course the defense let up a field goal on the ensuing drive, but the Bears had the ball with 1:11 left and a chance to cut the lead before halftime. Apparently offensive genius Marc Trestman didn’t think that was enough time to even get in field goal range (?) and ran a couple of vanilla plays to Forte that netted a total of -7 yards. No big deal, just kneel the ball and go into halftime right? Not so fast, on 3rd down Trestman changed his mind (?) and decided to run a pass play that ended up incomplete which stopped the clock and gave the Rams a chance to score. I had to leave the room and go yell incoherently for a minute so I missed what happened next, but the Rams didn’t score at least. I am looking forward to hearing Trestman explain what his thought process was on that one though. 1:11 seems like more than enough time to get in field goal range to me. I wish that was my only complaint about Trestman today.