Day of Pain and Frustration for Bears in Many Ways
Akiem Hicks went through the physical pain while Cordarrelle Patterson and the Bears offense got to experience another type of agony in Sunday's 21-13 Bears loss to Green Bay.
Hicks typified the fight in the Bears by refusing to leave the game for good after banging up his injured elbow twice. He had just come off injured reserve after eight weeks of rehab work.
"I was happy it stood up to the test," Hick said of his elbow, which truly was tested.
Twice he went to the injury tent after it was bent too much or the wrong way on tackles.
"I'm going to go through some of those things throughout the course of a game," Hicks said. "Hopefully they can be a lot less than they were today."
With nothing left for the Bears to play for now it could be expected Hicks would just go back on injured reserve. But that's not likely.
"I love football," he said, when asked whether he planned to continue playing.
Hicks saw what his play did for teammates and wants to continue inspiring.
"My linemen, Nick Williams, Bilal Nichols, Eddie Goldman, those guys they saw the energy and they were excited for me to be able to go back out there because they know how much I was missing it," Hicks said. "I'm happy I got to play today."
Patterson's pain was caused by officials. He made a big hit on punt returner Tramon Williams while covering a punt near the end of the first quarter, and jarred the ball loose. The Bears recovered near midfield, but officials flagged him for interfering with the right to field the punt.
The replay showed Patterson didn't make contact until after the ball had been touched by Williams. The 15-yard penalty let Green Bay start its drive at the Bears 35 and it led to their first touchdown.
"I think they should be able to challenge a call like that in a situation like that," Patterson said.
It got even more frustrating for Patterson considering he came close to blocking a punt.
"It would have been my first blocked punt," he said.
The day of frustration for all the Bears offense reached a melting point when they came close to breaking the final play of the game for a touchdown on a playground-style pass they call "Recess."
It looked like the famed or infamous "Stanford Band" play, minus the band.
From the Packers 34, Mitchell Trubisky threw short to Tarik Cohen with the Packers back expecting a Hail Mary. Cohen fumbled it trying to lateral and Trubisky got it and ran 5 more yards before he lateraled to tight end Jesper Horsted at the 16, who ran 9 yards to Green Bay's 7 but was hit and fumbled while trying to lateral again. Williams then recovered at the Packers 2 to end the game.
"We work on the play every Saturday," Patterson said. "We always score (in practice) because that's what we're working for, but this time I thought we had it.
"We came up short but we shouldn't even have been in that situation anyway."
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
