The Chicago Bears lost in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday as the Green Bay Packers blocked an attempt at a game-winning field goal as time expired at Soldier Field.
On Monday, head coach Matt Eberflus told reporters that the Bears believe the Packers committed a penalty on the block and are filing a complaint with the NFL. Eberflus also defended his decision to attempt the kick from 46 yards rather than use remaining time on the game clock to try to make it a shorter attempt.
What happened
The Bears took possession of the ball on Sunday at their own 30-yard line with 2:59 remaining in regulation while trailing the Packers, 20-19. They executed a 42-yard drive to the Green Bay 28-yard line, where Cairo Santos attempted a 46-yard field goal that would have won the game.
Packers defenders got penetration up the middle off the snap and blocked the kick to secure a Green Bay victory.
Eberflus acknowledged that the Bears did a poor job of blocking, but believes that the Packers made illegal contact with long snapper Scott Daly on the play and wants the NFL to take a second look.
“We had to be firmer inside, for sure,” Eberflus said of the play. “And again, we’ll turn the play in, ’cause obviously, they were on our long snapper. So we’ll turn it in and see what the league says from there. But again, we’ve just gotta be firmer in the execution.”
When asked to clarify what he took issue with on the play, Eberflus said this:
“We saw him making direct contact with him right away,” Eberflus said.
Was the blocked kick a legal play?
Per NFL rules, a long snapper is considered a defenseless player at the time of the snap and is afforded extra protection. Per those rules, defenders are prohibited from “forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder.”
Daly didn’t get his head up before two Packers defenders were on him. T.J. Slaton leapt over him and knocked him to the ground before Daly could get into an upright blocking position. Whether or not that contact was illegal is subjective. Officials on Sunday did not deem that a penalty was warranted.
The Bears ran their last offensive play on Sunday with 35 seconds remaining on the clock. They gained two yards on a run to the Green Bay 28-yard line and opted not to run another offensive play despite having one timeout and 30 seconds remaining on the game clock.
They let the clock run down to three seconds and called the timeout to set up the field-goal attempt. Eberflus was asked about the decision again on Monday, a day after defending it in his postgame news conference.
“I feel really good with running the ball there to get it to the 28-yard line and taking the clock down to three seconds and going for the game-winner there,” Eberflus said.
He also explained the downside risks that he considered in opting not to run another play.
“The obvious risks are — you false start, you go backward,” Ebeflus continued. “You run an outside play, they call holding. You throw a pass and it gets tipped.”
Sunday’s loss was Chicago’s fourth straight following a 4-2 start and moved the Bears further out of the playoff picture. And Eberflus, again, is facing a round of difficult questions for why a once-promising season has gone off the rails.