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Encore Performance by Bears Defense
It could have been a replay of the loss to Pittsburgh Nov. 8 except this time it was daylight, the Bears had Andy Dalton at quarterback and their defense gave up a late touchdown instead of field goal.
Either way, the Bears have lost five straight after a 16-13 defeat at Soldier Field, the fans are booing and yelling for coach Matt Nagy's job and they'll go into Detroit on Thanksgiving not knowing if Justin Fields will be able to play due to a rib injury.
Fields left against Baltimore Sunday and Dalton rallied the team to a 13-9 lead with a fourth-and-11 touchdown pass of 49 yards to Marquise Goodwin, but the Bears defense faltered down the stretch again just as they had in their last game with the Steelers when Fields gave them a lead.
"Well it's sickening," Bears defensive end Robert Quinn said. "I'll just put it that way. It's a punch to the guy."
Quinn had a career-high 3 1/2 sacks, taking up the slack caused by the loss of Khalil Mack due to a season-ending foot injury, and the Bears held the Ravens without a touchdown until after Dalton's TD bomb to Goodwin.
Then they suffered the embarrassment of letting Ravens backup quarterback Tyler Huntley lead a five-play, 72-yard TD drive, with the winning points coming on Devonta Freeman's 3-yard run with 22 seconds remaining. He completed a 29-yard throw on third-and-12 to Sammy Watkins to set up the TD as Kindle Vildor was beaten on the play.
"We had the lead, the Ravens had the ball, it was on the defense to close it out and we didn't do that," Quinn said. "Yeah, it's a gut punch."
The Bears defense found out 90 minutes before the game they would be facing Huntley instead of quarterback Lamar Jackson.
"I literally found out right before we went out who's starting," Quinn said. "Didn't really change anything. No. 2 (Huntley), he's a mobile quarterback just like (Jackson). We just stuck to our game plan. Just didn't finish it."
Huntley completed 26 of 36 for 219 yards against them but they sacked him six times and he obviously didn't have the mobility of Jackson.
It doesn't say much for their defense and coach Matt Nagy is trying to figure out where the breakdowns are coming at crucial times.
"I think situationally, you're at a point right there where you've got guys in there that have got to be able to communicate, and again, I've got to go back and find out what the calls were and what the bust was all about or if it was just a good play by them and talk through that."
Dalton went 11 of 23 for 201 yards in relief of Fields, who had struggled to 4 of 11 for 79 yards. Dalton completed a wide receiver screen that Darnell Mooney turned into a 60-yard TD pass in the third quarter. He had played only a few downs since his Week 2 knee injury against Cincinnati and being benched in place of Fields.
"I've been through a lot," Dalton said. "There's a lot that's gone on from starting the year to the injury to not playing, and you know, that's one of those things."
With a quick Bears turnaround to a Thursday game in Detroit, Dalton could be playing against Lions in the Thanksgiving Day game.
"You can't let this game affect Thursday," Dalton said. "So we have to move forward."
Beyond the blown lead, the game took on the look of many other Bears losses. They had another 12-men-on-the-field penalty on the defense, a false start by Jason Peters coming out of a timeout, a false start by Cole Kmet and a couple of dropped passes by Mooney. Nagy had a few questionable decision, including going for a fourth-and-1 with a one-point lead at the 49-yard line when his defense had been dominating. It failed when David Montgomery was stuffed in a wildcat run.
The Bears exited the field to boos at halftime and after the game. If they lose to Detroit, they'll match last year's six-game losing streak.
“You keep fighting, you keep believing in each other and you keep it real simple," Nagy said. "You never stop fighting. That’s all you can do.”
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