On his first throw of the day and his last, Teddy Bridgewater threw an interception.
After three straight wins and plenty of hype for Bridgewater and the Carolina Panthers, the two picks were just another instance of the struggles that Bridgewater has had in his last six quarters.
Sunday’s issues resulted in a Chicago 23-16 victory over the Panthers.
It also shows there are still a lot of inconsistencies with Carolina to be worked out.
"This game can humble you," Bridgewater said. "A game like today is good for you. We can learn from it and won't let an experience like today happen again and try and move forward."
Trailing 23-16 late in the fourth quarter, Carolina had two chances to tie the game, but the problems with the offense took hold.
The best chance for the Panthers came when they faced a fourth-and-2 at the Chicago 38 with two minutes left to play.
Instead of running, Bridgewater dropped back to pass and missed a wide open D.J. Moore, who had gotten behind the defense and likely would have scored had the throw not been behind him.
Carolina (3-3) stopped the Bears with very little time running off and forced a punt to get one more shot at tying the game.
But Bridgewater threw into heavy coverage resulting in an interception and ending any hopes of winning.
"Great football teams capitalize in those situations and take advantage of it and we didn't do that today," Bridgewater said.
After throwing for 261 yards in the first half last week at Atlanta, Bridgewater threw for 52 yards in the second half of that game and just 60 in the first half against the Bears.
He finished with 216 yards and two interceptions on 16-of-29 passing against Chicago, which included 68 yards in the fourth quarter in part to a 38-yard gain from Moore in a late-game comeback attempt.
Bridgewater’s 50.4 quarterback rating was by far the worst rating of the season for him.
"From the very beginning, credit to Chicago, we were under duress," head coach Matt Rhule said. "Teddy ran the ball more than I've seen him run the ball. He was having to extend plays with his feet. Their pressure gave us problems at times and we could never quite get into sync."
Bridgewater was sacked four times after not being sacked once the previous two weeks and was forced to scramble a handful of times, finishing the day with eight rushes for 48 yards.
The Panthers have exceeded expectations through the first six weeks of the season by squeaking out three wins, but the mistakes on Sunday showed that Carolina is still a team in progress.
"It's never acceptable to be inconsistent, especially when you're playing a really good team," left tackle Russell Okung said. "The thing about playing really good teams is that the margin of error is so small and the most smallest mistakes, and the minutiae of those mistakes can end up forcing you to lose the game.
"This is a game that will end up humbling us. Perhaps we need to be humbled a little bit more. Humility does two things- humility one can bow up with pride or bow us down in servitude."
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