David Haugh of The Chicago Tribune is left searching for answers as to whom to blame for the Bears’ 11-second collapse that led to the Falcons winning 22-20 on a 48-yard Jason Elam field goal as time expired.
Much debate will center around Lovie Smith’s decision to squib-kick rather than ask Robbie Gould to boot it deep to Norwood. That’s convenient second-guessing rooted in frustration more than fact. Remember, Norwood had just burned the Bears for an 85-yard return on the previous kickoff, and the same injury problems that plagued the secondary had decimated special teams.
It made more sense for Smith to rely on his defense to make one stop outside field-goal range than trust a kickoff-coverage team littered with rookies…
“The call didn’t work, and that’s my fault,” Babich said.
He raises a valid point.
The Falcons had the ball at their own 44-yard line. Why Babich couldn’t come up with a three-deep scheme to monitor the sideline routes better could be a question Chicago will still be asking in January if the Bears miss the playoffs by one game.
But Hamilton’s execution of Babich’s Cover-2 call hurt the Bears worse than the decision to use it.
In that zone defense, Hamilton typically has the responsibility of the routes in front of him but needs to drop deep enough at first to take away the corner route Jenkins ran. That buys the safety precious seconds.
Understand that with six seconds left in the game and the Bears protecting a one-point lead, no pass caught in front of Hamilton matters. A 10-yard gain would not have been enough to put Elam in field-goal range. A 15-yard gain probably wouldn’t have either. If Hamilton had dropped a few yards deeper, Matt Ryan never would have thrown that ball.
Yet for reasons that could nag the Bears all winter, Hamilton broke forward to take away a potential completion to Jerious Norwood in the right flat that would have ended the game happily for the Bears.
Haugh is right – the defensive call by Babich to stay in Cover 2 was worse than the squib kick. As Haugh points out, Norwood had just busted off an 80-plus yard return and while hindsight is always 20/20, at least not kicking it deep made a little sense.
But to leave the sideline rout open when all the Falcons could run was a sideline rout in hopes of getting into field goal range is inexcusiable. I realize Hamilton failed to get in the correct position that allowed Jenkins to get open, but coaching plays into that, too. If you’re Babich and you know you have a slew of young corners on the field, why not call for more blanket coverage to take away the sideline rout? Bad decision.
