Five consequential plays that ended the Bears’ Super Bowl hopes and showcased the playoff inexperience with this team
NFL games are won and lost by a select handful of critical plays.
NFL games tend to come down to a select handful of plays that can decide the final outcome, especially in close playoff games like we saw on Sunday night between the Chicago Bears and the Los Angeles Rams that ended in a Rams overtime win.
“They ended up making a couple more plays than we did,” Bears head coach Ben Johnson told reporters after the game. “That’s why it ended up going into overtime and they ended up coming out on top. Disappointing result, our guys are feeling it right now.”
Hindsight is always 20/20 and mistakes happen every single week in this league, there’s nothing that can change any of it now. But, for those curious, here are the five consequential plays that ended the Bears’ Super Bowl hopes and showed some of the playoff inexperience from the players and coaching staff in Chicago.
Five critical plays that led to the Bears overtime loss to the Rams
1. 2nd-and-4 drop by WR Rome Odunze on opening drive
This one goes without saying anything more than that. On the first drive of the game, the Bears quickly moved right down the field against the Rams defense. Inside the redzone, the Bears had the perfect call to score the opening points of the game.
Second-year wide receiver Rome Odunze had cornerback Cobie Durant beat and created easy separation to make this an easy touchdown. Instead, Odunze went for a body catch with the ball slightly behind him and it ended with a drop (his first of three drops in this game). Two plays later, the Bears’ drive ended with an interception on fourth down.
2. Bad short yardage play calling in the second quarter
Let me start by saying that I have no issue with the aggressiveness by Johnson on the fourth down decision making in that game. That’s who he is as a coach and play-caller and it’s never going to change. Fourth down decision making isn’t what lost that game.
Now, there’s certainly some questionable play calling in some of those situations, and that I have a problem with. Watching it back, the most obvious was in the second quarter with around five minutes remaining in the half. At the Rams’ 32-yard-line, Johnson called back-to-back runs plays with D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai on third and fourth down with one yard to go. Both plays were stopped at the line of scrimmage.
Personally, if you know you’re going for it on fourth down in that situation, hindsight says you should be more aggressive on that third down or at least more creative with the play calling. Earlier in the season, Johnson found success in those situations taking shots down the field off play action on third-and-short and other times found success calling designed runs with QB Caleb Williams. Instead, the Bears did two straight runs and turned the ball over on a potential scoring opportunity.
3. Third down missed block by Odunze late in the fourth quarter
Another play Odunze would love to have back. This time, Odunze’s mistake came as a run blocker down at the goal line on a 3rd-and-goal carry by Swift. Odunze was expected to block defensive back Darious Williams on the play with Swift bouncing the run to the outside on the right side.
Swift made a nice play avoiding the tackle for a loss against defensive end Jared Verse, but Odunze missed the block on Williams, allowing the defensive back to shoot down and make a play on Swift to prevent the touchdown.
On the next play, Williams attempted to force a tightly contested ball over the middle to wide receiver Luther Burden that fell incomplete on fourth down, causing another missed opportunity to put points on the board.
4. Sending pressure at the worst time against Matthew Stafford
Again, I don’t fault the aggressiveness throughout the game by the Bears coaching staff, including the calls Dennis Allen was making on defense. I’ll have another article later today explaining some of the things he did well schematically against the Rams offense.
But, the aggressiveness finally came back to bite Allen against an experienced veteran in Matthew Stafford. The play in question was in overtime on 3rd-and-6 from the Bears 43-yard-line. Chicago desperately needed a stop on this play and Allen’s call was to send extra pressure off the edge with nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon, who made some key plays as a pass rusher earlier in the game.
This time, however, Stafford saw Gordon show blitz before the snap and made the adjustment. The Bears stuck with the same call, and Stafford threw it straight to the vacant hole left by Gordon. Wide receiver Puka Nacua made the catch and turned it into a 16-yard gain to essentially end it.
5. Obvious misconnection between Caleb Williams and DJ Moore
There was no bigger play than this to decide the game. On the Bears first drive of overtime, needing only a field goal to win it, the Bears had the perfect play call on 2nd-and-8 to win the game.
Odunze had the deep post on the play with DJ Moore running the underneath crosser. The play was designed to make the safety choose which receiver he would cover, allowing Williams to hit the other option and set up the potential game-winner. On the play, Moore had a complete lack of effort (clear to everyone watching).
Williams told reporters after the game that there was a clear miscommunication between the two as Moore was expected to flatten his route as a true crosser but instead kept running up the field. As a result, Kamren Curl was able to jump in front of Moore and intercept the pass. It was an inexcusable play by Moore in that situation and even he knows it.
Ultimately, this is how things go in the NFL and there’s nothing that can change the outcome of this game anymore. It’s a learning experience for the entire team and coaching staff and something they won’t forget the next time they’re in this situation.
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