Just Bearly

Beating the New England Patriots is already difficult enough. Beating the New England Patriots after gift-wrapping two touchdowns on special teams is impossible. Just ask the Chicago Bears, who came up one yard short of stunning the Patriots with a miraculous comeback after allowing two special teams touchdowns earlier in the game.

On Sunday, the Bears hosted the Patriots and jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first half before succumbing to an inevitable win machine. The Patriots quickly erased that deficit by capitalizing on the Bears’ miscues, which included allowing two special teams touchdowns and two interceptions in Patriots territory. What started as an entertaining, back-and-forth affair turned into what looked like a familiar Patriots blowout before it eventually resulted in a slim 38-31 win.

Just when it looked like the Patriots were pulling away, the Bears, trailing by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter, pieced together an improbable comeback that came up one yard short.

After they picked off Tom Brady, scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to seven points, and forced another stop in the final minute of the game, the Bears needed to journey 80 yards without any timeouts to force overtime. The Bears proceeded to manufacture just enough yards to get into Hail Mary range with two seconds showing on the game clock.

On the final play of the game, Mitchell Trubisky hoisted a prayer downfield. His prayer was answered by Kevin White, who made a leaping grab at the 1-yard line with his back to the end zone. He tried to turn his body and stretch the ball over the goal line, but a horde of Patriots provided enough resistance to turn him away at the last possible moment. And that’s how the Patriots won a mistake-filled, crazy game.

With Soldier Field game clocks showing 7 minutes remaining, the New England Patriots up two touchdowns, and the ball in Tom Brady’s hands, Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bears was a foregone conclusion. Or so it seemed.

And then it wasn’t.

With 0:02 on those same clocks and the score slashed to 38-31, Mitchell Trubisky evaded pressure and let fly. Kevin White soared. And an improbable Hail Mary to complete an improbable comeback and came up juuuust short.

“For a split second,” White said postgame, he thought he could get in. Until he felt Patriots defenders piling on his back. “Then I kind of knew it was over.”

“I tried to stretch the ball,” White continued, reliving the agonizing seconds in which the Bears were so close, as they have been in all three of their losses this season. White said he tried to hand the ball to fellow wide receiver Taylor Gabriel, mere feet away at the goal line. But alas, “there was just nowhere I could go.”

“If I had Kyle Long or one of the linemen to push me in,” White lamented, half-joking, “it could have been different.”

That Trubisky even got the ball to the goal line was remarkable. His dropback shaded right. But he felt pressure, and had to roll to his non-dominant left, twist his hips, and put everything he had into the throw despite having Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy in his face.

Trubisky admitted postgame that he “just chucked one deep. I saw a group of our receivers down there. Kevin made a heck of a catch. … And it was a lot closer than I’m sure a lot of people saw it.”

Considering his field-level vantage point, Trubisky said, “I thought he was in.”