Browns Turn Tables on Bears

There will be no running of the table by the Bears, at least not a meaningful one.

Their inability to hold leads and build on one realistically took Bears playoff talk off said table.

NFL teams out of the race can focus on the bigger picture and next year. The Bears Sunday just about joined these ranks when Darnell Mooney had Justin Fields' Hail Mary pass pop in the air and out of his grasp as he fell backward in the end zone for a game-ending interception and a 20-17 defeat.

"At the end of the day the Cleveland Browns made more plays down at the end than we did," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "Our guys made a lot of them but certainly that's what happened at very end."

The Bears didn't make the most important one at the end. The prayer pass from 45 yards would have won a game the Bears led in the fourth quarter 17-7, and as a result the criticism and speculation can begin in earnest.

In this one alone, Eberflus could be second-guessed. Never one to blitz, he brought pressure on third-and-15 while dropping 300-pound defensive tackle Justin Jones back into coverage and tight end David Njoku caught a Joe Flacco pass just behind Jones' area before turning upfield for 34 yards to set up the game-winning Dustin Hopkins 32-yard field goal with 32 seconds left.

"Typically that pressure is going to hit and the ball is going to be out quicker than what it was," Eberflus said.

The Bears couldn't be too harsh on their own defense failing at game's end when they had practically done their own offense's job all day, as well.

Eddie Jackson picked off a Flacco pass and returned it to the 1 in the second quarter to set up Fields' third-down, 5-yard TD pass to Cole Kmet in the corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

The defense actually did the scoring in the third quarter when Tremaine Edmunds plucked a ball deflected by T.J. Edwards and raced 45 yards for a 14-7 Bears lead.

"The defense wanted more turnovers," safety Jaquan Brisker said afterward. "We wanted four. We only had three. We thought we probably could have took one more to the house."

Fields threw for only 166 yards on 19 of 40 as he was hounded all day by Cleveland's defense, and the only points the offense actually produced on their own came on a Cairo Santos 41-yard field goal ending a 47-yard drive with 7:07 left in the third quarter.

"Our goal as an offense is at least 28 points a game," Fields said, after they came up well short of that goal. "The way our defense is playing now that's usually more than enough points."

While Fields couldn't move the Bears through the air, they had even less success on the ground with 87 yards but only 34 from running backs.

The 38-year-old Flacco, conversely completed 29 of 45 for 374 yards against the Bears and threw another interception to Tyrique Stevenson, while being sacked four times.

However, Flacco delivered when it counted most and Fields didn't.

Flacco threw 57 yards to former Bears receiver Marquise Goodwin to set up Dustin Hopkins' fourth-quarter field goal of 33 yards.

"I gotta make a better call," Eberflus said. "They had a penalty there. I ended up calling a coverage, which I could have done a better job with that. Cover-2 would have been a great call there but again they got over the top of us with a fast receiver and they got behind us."

Cleveland tied it at 17-17 on another big play with 3:08 to play on a 51-yard TD pass to Amari Cooper, who got behind Jaquan Brisker.

The Bears had other chances that the defense didn't supply.

Fields got stopped on a fourth-and-1 run around end when he was tripped up from behind with plenty of room at the Browns 33. They abstained from the 51-yard field goal there into the 13 mph wind to try for the first down, when they were trying to expand their 17-7 lead to 24-7.

"I got tripped up," Fields said. "Once I felt myself falling I dove. If I were to have it back again I would get as wide as possible."

The Fields Hail Mary to Mooney was the second like it they threw. The opted for one instead of a long field goal before halftime because of the wind, as well. They didn't get close to catching that one.

However, this Hail Mary pass came off exactly as the Bears would have wanted. Fields threw it to Cole Kmet and it was knocked back to Mooney, who was falling. He couldn't retain the ball and Cleveland's D'Anthony Bell grabbed it when Mooney lost it.

"It's just about focus and concentration there at the end and making a really good play," Eberflus said.

Considering their playoff chances now revolve around three straight wins and a miracle combination of losses by other teams, the Bears will need all the focus and concentration they can muster the rest of the way. And then some.

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