Mike McCarthy cost the Packers an important victory, settling for a tie with the Vikings. A victory would have moved the Packers into a three-way tie for first place, despite the fact that Aaron Rodgers has missed the last 4 games. With 11:42 to play in the 4th quarter, the Packers scored a touchdown to cut the Viking lead to 23-13. Instead of kicking the extra point to make the score 23-14, he went for two and they failed. The Packers later scored a TD to pull within 3, then kicked a field goal to tie the game with 0:46 left in the 4th quarter. Had McCarthy gone for the extra point, which he should have done with so much time left, the field goal at the end would have won the game, not tied it. Not getting a victory hurts the Packers, since the division race is so close.
The bears, although they lost to St. Louis, got a number of gifts from the opposing player, coach, and refs. Here are a few:
1. The Rams were up 21-7 midway through the second quarter, and were moving the ball easily. The bears had a third-and-22 from their own 32, and the Rams intercepted. Another Ram touchdown, and the game would have been basically over. However, a defensive back that lined up deep hit a bear receiver for no reason 10 yards off the line of scrimmage (hits are allowed in the first 5 yards). This receiver wasn’t involved in the play and the DB had no reason to hit him, but did. This not only nullified the interception, but gave the bears a first down, and they went on to score a TD, pulling to within 7. The odds of converting a third-and-22 are low, and for this DB to hit the receiver for no reason was ridiculous.
2. Early in the 4th quarter, up 27-14, the Rams punted to Hester. He returned it for a TD, which would have cut the lead to 6, except that the Rams got lucky that it was called back for holding. What will it take until teams learn not to punt or kick to him? This could have cost them the game.
3. With about 10 minutes to play in the 4th quarter, the bears had third-and-six from the St. Louis 20. The Rams blitzed a lot of players, which is fine, but the bears had Earl Bennett lined up wide right and since the Rams were blitzing, the cornerback was one-on-one with Bennett, with no safety help. That’s also okay, except that the cornerback was playing press coverage! Time and time again cornerbacks get burned by this, as has been mentioned on Sportstruths frequently, because they can’t react and don’t know where the ball is. Many times quarterbacks see this and audible to that receiver, knowing the huge advantage the receiver has. All a DB has to do is back off another yard or two and they would be in position to make a play, but for some reason, coaches don’t get this. What happened on this play? The cornerback had to interfere with Bennett in the endzone since he was beaten and didn’t know where the ball was, which frequently happens, and the bears got a first down at the 1 as a result. They scored a TD to pull within 6. The refs actually gave the bears this TD, as on third-and-one, McCown was sacked for a 9-yard loss, but a terrible roughing-the-passer penalty was called, giving the bears a first down at the 1 and eventual TD, vs. the field goal they should have had. It would have been a 10-point game (2 scores) at that point, vs. the 6-point game it was.
Your article is written as if the Bears had beaten St Louis ? I have never seen such Biased Journalism in all of Sports coverage.
I wish that you would stop trying to infuse your attitude and just tell the facts of the game and not your Biased- Anti- Bear interpretation of them. Shame on you !!
I was just pointing out that even when the bears lose, the other teams and refs continue to help them. Sometimes it costs the bear opponents games, and sometimes it doesn’t. These are the facts of the game, and not an interpretation!
Hello Larry, closer to 60 than 16 maybe it’s time to just enjoy football and to say Packers not packers or Bears not bears. The reality of this year (2013) both teams had injuries and both teams sucked, the refs had nothing to do with it. Let’s hope that sometime in our lifetime both teams will be great and the greatest NFL game will be recognized as the Packer-Bear, Bear-Packer game of …. and as an aside Cubs/Sox it’s just baseball and I love it. BR
Edmund, please watch spell-checker more closely. It is “bear” or “bears” in lowercase at all times. Uppercase is reserved for professional sports teams only. This is not open to interpretation!