The Bears love overtime, eh?
With some family obligations keeping me at an “in-and-out” viewing experience for today’s game, I’ll have to leave the substantive analysis for Luis/later.
As has been the case so often this year, the Bears’ defense played very well for being consistently put behind the eight ball. This time, it wasn’t so much an ineffective offense turning the ball over; it was a special teams unit that flubbed their way to two touchdowns given up, including a 77-yard punt return in the final two minutes of the game, allowing the Ravens to tie things up. The Ravens scored 11 points in the final five minutes to tie things up and send the game to overtime.
There, on the game’s final drive, Jordan Howard ripped off a 53-yard run and Mitch Trubisky and Kendall Wright combined for a beautiful throw-and-catch to set up a Connor Barth 40-yard field goal.
Breaking out to an early lead, the Bears took advantage of Ravens mistakes, added a couple very fun touchdown passes, and survived the unstemmable flow of mistakes that have plagued them all season. They even secured three turnovers, their first time pulling that off in a couple years.