Bears coach Ben Johnson gave Cairo Santos one directive before he kicked to the Vikings with 2:02 remaining in Monday’s game and Chicago trailing by three points.
“The intent was for the ball to go out the end zone,” Johnson said.
Santos’ kick did not make it through the end zone, though, giving the Vikings the opportunity to return the kick and burn valuable seconds off the clock that loomed large in their 27-24 road win.
Many on social media skewered Johnson in his Bears coaching debut for not having his kicker boot the ball out of bounds to preserve the valuable two seconds before the two-minute warning, thus gaining essentially another timeout, or at least trying for an onside kick.
“The coaching move there had to simply be to kick the ball out of bounds,” FS1 pundit Nick Wright tweeted. “Who cares about the difference between giving it up at the 40 vs 35, you simply can’t risk not getting the 2min warning stoppage. Ben Johnson’s first major game management mistake.”
After allowing 21 straight points in the fourth quarter to turn a 17-6 lead into a 27-17 deficit, the Bears cut their deficit to three when they scored with 2:02 remaining.
Scoring before the two-minute warning was significant since Chicago only had one timeout left, meaning they would pick up a second time stoppage provided no time came off the clock on the ensuing kickoff.
Santos’ kick almost made it through the back of the end zone, but did not go far enough, which allowed Ty Chandler to field the ball.
After he caught the ball, he looked at coach Kevin O’Connell, who beckoned him to exit the end zone and get the clock past the two-minute warning, with play stopping at 1:55.
That left the Bears with just one chance to stop the clock, and they ultimately received the ball back with just nine seconds remaining.
Johnson acknowledged he considered an onside kick, but that too would have required at least two seconds, and he valued potentially having nearly one minute for a potential game-tying drive.
“We felt like if we would have kicked it out of the end zone and got the three-and-out we got,” Johnson said. “We’d get the ball back with around 56 seconds.”
As many lauded O’Connell for having Chandler run with the ball, Johnson faced criticism for not handling the situation better.
“Ben Johnson had a bad day. Didn’t like his game plan. Failing to kick FG early. Bad challenge. And then not having Santos kick out of bounds was just pure stupidity,” popular Bears X account @BearsBlitznet posted. “I believe he’ll be fine but he deserves criticism.”
The Bears will aim to get their first win under Johnson next Sunday when they visit a Lions team that got thoroughly dismantled in Green Bay, while the Vikings host the Falcons on “Sunday Night Football.”
Johnson previously served as the Lions’ offensive coordinator.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
