Chicago Bears: Loss to Steelers gives new meaning to hitting rock bottom
Several penalties, lack of execution, and dumbfounding decisions defined the Chicago Bears in their Monday Night loss to the Steelers.
Unbelievable. Are you kidding me? How many flags are going to be thrown on these guys? A few words to describe the Chicago Bears game against the Steelers.
12 penalties, some of them questionable, were called against Chicago in their 29-27 loss in the Steel City. A night that truly wasted an actually admirable performance from their rookie quarterback Justin Fields.
You don’t even need to read this to know how bad it was. All you have to do is simply read the universe that is Twitter and see it for yourself, particularly the pathetic taunting call on Cassius Marsh that was issued on the Bears on a night where it looked like the moment anything came good, a flag was thrown.
The name of the head official? Tony Corrente. That should sound familiar to Bears fans. Oh, that’s right, he was the head official of Super Bowl XLI when Chicago lost to Peyton Manning and co. in the rain.
For all the movie buffs out there, there were moments during the game where it felt like the scene in Remember the Titans when calls consistently went against one of Denzel Washington’s troops.
Fields finished the night with 291 passing yards and a touchdown with one interception. His score came late in the fourth quarter on a special drive that looked to have won the game for the Bears. But Ben Roethlisberger, who finished with 205 yards and two scores, went right back down the field, with the help of Robert Quinn being offside (or was it Dee Ford in disguise?), and set up a game-winning field goal.
The Chicago Bears did not get any help from officiating, but they hurt themselves beyond control, and it showed up on national television.
Down 14-0 early in the game, it just didn’t look good to begin with. Pat Freiermuth and Najee Harris looked nothing like rookies; they looked like grown men against Chicago, and Pittsburgh certainly enjoyed it. In addition, T.J. Watt had a three-sack performance against the Bears’ offensive line.
At this point, however, the highlight of the night is going to be the yellow flags. Just five for the Steelers and twelve for the Bears, a hurting statistic that glosses over just how Chicago came back from a 14-3 halftime deficit and almost pulled it off, that is, if it wasn’t for more flags down the stretch.
There is a positive, however. That is Fields. To go down the field the way he did to even put the Bears out in front late in the game shows that with better circumstances, this kid has the potential to be the guy in Chicago, the franchise quarterback that has eluded this franchise for generations.
But Monday Night was rock bottom. Flat out rock bottom. So close to pulling it off, yet the field goal attempt by Cairo Santos didn’t even doink to break the hearts; it just came up short in the end.
It’s going to stick for good, and you have to wonder what’s next for this team as they head into their bye week before coming back to face Baltimore and then head to Detroit on Thanksgiving day.