After Caleb Williams' miracle TD throw, Bears' head coach Ben Johnson opted to merely kick the extra point and force overtime.
Fourth downs. Two-point conversions. Trick plays. The Bears did more than almost any team on their way to the NFC North title and Wild Card win. But then came Sunday night.at frigid, snowy Soldier Field, bypassing field goals to go for fourth downs three times.
Another fourth-down gamble led to an early touchdown.Which is why Johnson's decision to go conservative and traditional on the season's most important play was so shocking.After Caleb Williams' miraculous touchdown throw of his back foot from the 40-yard line to Cole Kmet in the end zone, Johnson faced a decision down 17-16 with 18 seconds remaining. One more gamble. One more risk. The bold Bears needed a two-point conversion to advance to the NFC Championship. "100 percent they should've gone for two," said ESPN analyst Rex Ryan on Monday morning's Get Up!. "Why? You had all the momentum in the world. Caleb had just took the air out of the balloon with the Rams with that one-in-a-million play. I've watched football for 50 years ... never seen anything like that. That defense was completely on their heels. They're gassed. They're sitting there like 'What the hell are doing?'."“Thought about it. Probably what played a little bit of a factor was our goal-to-go situations hadn’t gone very clean,” Johnson said in his postgame press conference. “Our inside the five plan hadn’t worked out quite like we had hoped. I just felt better about taking our chances there in overtime.” Instead of trusting Caleb to make one more play, Johnson put his trust in the defense in overtime. In his defense, the strategy worked as the Bears forced a punt before Williams' fatal interception."Ben's the most aggressive guy of all-time," he said. "He went for it a million times in this game. Are you kidding me? Go win the damn thing. He made a mistake, and he'll regret not going for two the rest of his life."The Ozzy Trapilo injury news is even worse than we thoughtRichie Whitt has been a sports media fixture in Dallas-Fort Worth since graduating from UT-Arlington in 1986. His career is highlighted by successful stints in print , TV and radio . During his almost 40-year tenure, he's blabbed and blogged on events ranging from Super Bowls to NBA Finals to World Series to Stanley Cups to Olympics to Wimbledons to World Cups. Whitt has been covering the NFL since 1989, and in 1993 authored The 'Boys Are Back, a book chronicling the Dallas Cowboys' run to Super Bowl XXVII.Costly Ben Johnson decisions defined the Bears’ Divisional Round loss
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