the end of that Bears game was painful to watch, with the overly-conservative play calling and rampant clock wasting. they're on the 17-yard line on 1st down, with 1:23 to go and 3 timeouts left. they don't even TRY to score a touchdown, and only try minimally to advance the ball. all of this points to them seeing a field goal as a sure thing, when there was no good reason to believe so.
after San Fran's last timeout, our moves with a fresh set of downs are:
- a run that looks like its primary goal is to stay in the exact middle of the field, rather than gain yards.
- let ~35 extra seconds burn off the clock before calling time-out.
- QB taking a knee and losing a yard.
- FG attempt on third down.
i can see why they don't wait til 4th to kick, but the two previous decisions were inexcusable. Gould hasn't been automatic this season, and his troubles include a miss from 40 yards in the same game. 26 yards would be a chip shot; 36 yards is not. why the Bears didn't try to advance the ball to make the kick closer (if a first down and a TD came in the process, that'd be a bonus) boggles my mind.
instead, the play callers treated the 36-yarder as a foregone conclusion, showing no faith in the offense. while the unit had been weak at scoring points given they were repeatedly handed great field position, they moved the ball plenty: 364 yards in total offense, with 170 of that in rushing. i can understand not wanting to let Jay Cutler put the ball in the air (though an endzone shot where he throws it away unless a receiver is WIDE open should be harmless), but the rushers (Forte, at least) are pretty damn sure-handed. a kick puts the ball in the air, too; nothing is guaranteed. were they really that afraid of a RB fumbling?
make no mistake, Gould blew it at 0:02. but i was already cringing for the previous ~1:10 of regulation due to asinine playcalling.
Jim Cramer has a quote about investing, "Recklessness disguised as prudence", that seems fitting here.
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