Chicago Bears: Block in back springs return
The New England Patriots momentum changing kick return for a touchdown against the Chicago Bears may have been aided by an illegal block in the back
Listen, I am not going to make excuses. The Chicago Bears lost to the New England Patriots fair and square. The Chicago Bears gave up a blocked punt for a touchdown. They turned the ball over, made questionable coaching decisions and played poor defense.
On top of that, I am sure that you could point to five plays where a Bears lineman held and it was not called on Sunday. However, it is hard to watch the replay of the Cordarelle Patterson kickoff return for a touchdown without seeing something quite noticeable.
The play is linked here. Watch Sherrick McManis. McManis beats his man; this is no surprise as he is a known commodity on special teams.
From there, he is closing in on Patterson, something expected of McManis. However, as McManis comes into the hole that Patterson is hitting, you see that he is shoved in the back not once, but twice to help clear the way for Patterson.
While it is not a lock that McManis would have made the tackle the Chicago Bears at least deserved the opportunity to have the chance to find out.
This is a tough pill to swallow for a team that came up one yard shy of tying the game.
The Bears defense struggled to get to Tom Brady. However, the ensuing kick off was built off of a turning point in the game in which the Bears took over momentum. Up 17-7, with the crowd and momentum on their side, it would have been interesting to see if the Bears would have been able to apply pressure in that spot.
Next. Bears beat themselves vs Pats. dark
We will never know. As mentioned, this is not a call for a rematch or to call them the cheat riots. However, the Bears were robbed on a momentum-changing play.