Chiefs stun the Bears at home. Win 10-3

by Dan Peters


It’s not that the loss was that hard to swallow, it’s the loss of running back Matt Forte to a knee injury that surely puts a dark cloud on the Bears playoff chances.

This was supposed to be the game where backup quarterback Caleb Hanie would take charge and guide the Bears offense for a playoff push. Instead, what could go wrong, did go wrong.

Another devastating injury

The game was barely a quarter old when yet another key player was lost for what could be the remainder of the regular season. Matt Forte was hit hard on his knee on a rushing play by Chiefs defender Derrick Johnson. Forte would be out for the game, and probably at the minimum of two weeks, but more likely the regular season.

"Just like everyone, it's not a good feeling when you see your star tailback go down with a knee injury," he said. "But it's part of the game. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and hopefully it's not that serious."


Good play, gone bad, and a game changer

Trailing 3-0 with two seconds left in the first half, the Chiefs passed up a possible 56-yard field goal to attempt a Hail Mary.

Chief’s quarterback Tyler Palko dropped back 12 yards, stepped up in the pocket and launched the ball 50 yards to the end zone. Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher  was in the perfect position to make the interception, but decided to bat the ball down.  Nine out of ten times it works. This time it backfired in a big way.

"It's the same thing we always do: bat it down," Urlacher said. "The guy just happened to catchthat one. We've done it a hundred times and it's the first time anyone has caught one."

The time-tested technique on how to defend Hail-Mary pass is for the defender to knock the ball down. Brain Urlacher did just that, only he knocked it directly into the hands of Dexter McCluster. He didn't make the wrong play, just an unlucky one.

Perhaps NFL coaches should train defenders to knock down the ball only if they don't have a chance of catching it. In this case, Urlacher would have been better off going for the interception.
That touchdown ended up being the deciding factor in this crucial inter-conference matchup. Kansas City would win 10-3 serving a devastating blow to the injured Bears' playoff hopes. The touchdown was also only the second offensive touchdown the Chiefs scored since October. The Chiefs hapless offense scored only one touchdown in the month of November.

The Hail Mary was the first touchdown pass of Palko's brief NFL career. He had thrown 96 passes in seven games—all with the Chiefs the past two seasons—with six interceptions and no scores.

Where did the offense go?

It’s only the first week of December, but the Bears offense looked to be in hibernation.

"Offensively, we didn't get anything done," said coach Lovie Smith. "It's hard to maintain drives when you can't convert on third downs. They got too much pressure on us. We did a little bit with the running game, but just never got anything going."

Just how bad was it?

The Bears failed to sustain any drives, going 0-of-11 on third down and 0-of-2 on fourth down. Their only points came on Robbie Gould's 32-yard field goal early in the second quarter after Hanie's apparent 4- yard touchdown pass to Marion Barber was nullified by an illegal formation penalty. Then there was the Roy Williams pass in the end zone that stalled yet another drive as he bobbled it into the hands of Chiefs safety Jon McGraw for an interception and touchback.

"When I came around the linebacker, I didn't see the ball until late,'' Williams said. "I just tried to put my hands up. There was no way I could knock it down or anything else. A had a linebacker right in my face. When I came around him, all I saw was a big brown thing coming in front of me. I just tried to stop it.  It was my fault. I’ve got to make those plays,’’ Williams said. ‘‘Did that lose the game? Nope. There were a lot of things that happened before that that [could have made a difference]. But in my mind, yes, it [did]. In the fans’ mind, yes, it [did].’’

Playing the blame game.

You could ask any Bears player who was to blame for this shocking loss, and each will step up and say it was their fault. But in reality, this was a total team loss, so blame the whole team.
“We did it to ourselves,” center Roberto Garza said. “We weren't being effective on first or second down, so we were in third and- long. We have to go out there and protect our quarterback. It falls squarely on our shoulders, and we didn't do that today and that's the result.”

"I know Caleb Hanie will be blamed for a lot of it, but it's us as an offense overall," Smith said. "We didn't perform the way we needed to. Let's not attack one guy. We all had a lot to do and had a lot to say in what happened today. Caleb was a part of it. Caleb needs to make improvements like we all do, and we all will."

Caleb Hanie completed 11 of 24 passes for 133 yards with three interceptions and a 23.8 quarterback passer rating. He was sacked seven times by a Kansas City defense. The blame here..the Bears offensive line. Just when it seemed they were beginning to gel, they fell apart looking like they did earlier in the season.

"It's the quarterback's job to get the ball out," Hanie said. "The plays I can get it out, I need to. I know all the sacks weren't on them, that's for sure. I'm sure I had a couple on me. The receivers will tell you they had a couple on them, I'm sure. It's a collective effort."

Roy Williams summed up Hanie's performance well. "I know he was on his back a lot," he said. "I think he played OK. He's going to have to learn some more. We didn't help him as an offensive group."

Still some light at the end of the tunnel

Despite the loss, the Bears (7-5) really didn’t lose any ground in the wildcard race. They remain tied with the Lions (7-5) and Falcons (7-5), one game ahead of the Giants (6-6), after all three of those teams also lost on Sunday.

Always the optimist

"We need to get a win next week," Smith said. "We're still in good shape as far as I'm concerned. We're in great shape if we take care of business. If we make those necessary changes, adjustments and improvements we have to make, we'll be in great shape. We're one win away from feeling a lot better."