When the Chicago Bears hit a field goal with less than two minutes left in their Thursday Night Football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it felt like we had seen this movie a hundred times. A Tom Brady led team down by less than one score with almost no time on the clock must have like an 85% chance of winning. But it didn’t happen this time. When the downs went to fourth and five with 38 seconds left, instead of checking down and moving the chains, Brady confoundingly sent a long ball across the middle that was broken up. He was seen in the replays looking confused and showing the referees four fingers, leading some to believe that he had lost track of the downs.
Brady played off the mistake as being over aggressive instead of forgetful saying. “I know we needed a chunk and I was thinking about more yardage, and it was bad execution,” Brady said. “I had a great opportunity there. Just didn’t execute when we needed to.” He attributed the loss to more than one mistake. “I think turnovers, penalties, field position all those lead to points and it comes down to third down, red area, ultimately, you are trying to score more points than the other team and turnovers are a big part of it and penalties are another big part of that because you are not possessing the football if you are third and long yardage,” Brady said. “You need to have clean games where you stay ahead on down and distance.”
It’s not the end of the world for the Bucs, only being 3-2 on the year, but they cannot afford to have many more of these tough losses. On the other side, the Bears are 4-1? All of their wins have felt fluky or like they just barely survive every game but at some point the math will work in their favor. Believe it or not, the Bears may be a playoff team. “It was a fistfight,” said Bears QB Nick Foles, acquired from Jacksonville in an offseason trade. “It reminded me of like, a good old fistfight from Philly. Now, I get to do it in Chicago. I really enjoyed getting in the locker room and celebrating with my teammates. I’m probably a little more tired than I thought I’d be just because of everything, but I’ll sleep well tonight. I think everyone is really excited about the victory.”
