(670 The Score) A chaotic fourth quarter and finish in the Bears’ 29-27 loss to the Steelers on Monday Night Football had ESPN broadcasters Steve Levy and Brian Griese a bit frazzled in keeping up with the action.
On Bears kicker Cairo Santos’ desperation 65-yard field-goal attempt for the win at the buzzer, Levy thought the kick hit the crossbar – which might as well be a trigger phrase for Bears fans. The only trouble was the ball was probably eight to 10 yards short of being good.
While Levy’s mistake was of the one-off variety and perhaps could’ve been attributed to a bad viewing angle or something, Griese was just confused beyond belief in a series of key situations late in the game.
After the Bears tied the game at 26-26 on quarterback Justin Fields’ 16-yard touchdown pass to receiver Darnell Mooney with 1:46 remaining, Griese openly wondered if Chicago should go for two instead of kicking the extra point, which it did for a 27-26 lead. Griese did catch his mistake.
Later, Griese suggested the Steelers should run down the clock with 30 seconds left as they lined up for a go-ahead field-goal attempt, not realizing the Bears had one timeout left, which they soon used to save themselves a bit of time.
On the final drive, Griese may have had a fair point but also didn’t seem to understand the Bears’ intention on a first-and-10 play from the Steelers’ 47-yard line with five seconds remaining. The Bears tried to run a quick out route to pick up a few more yards for Santos’ upcoming field-goal attempt, but the pass was batted down. Griese claimed the Bears were lucky it was batted down because the clock would’ve expired, but the Bears had a receiver running a short out and probably could’ve gotten out of bounds with a second left on the clock had the play gone off without a hitch.