DENVER — As Eddy Piñeiro lined up for the game-winning field goal with one second left Sunday, Kyle Long thought back to something a former coach would say.
“As you can see, it’s 59 minutes and 59 seconds, and sometimes more,” he said grinning after the Bears’ 16-14 win over the Broncos. “As Marc Trestman used to say.”
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Bet you didn’t expect to get a Trestman reference after a wild game in which a Bears kicker made a clutch field goal, but it’s a good quote, because one second was the difference between the Bears being 0-2 and 1-1. It was the difference between having an 11.4 percent chance to make the playoffs — based on the league since 2002 — and having the same 1-1 start as eight of last year’s 12 playoff teams.
“It’s good when you’re on this side,” Bears linebacker Khalil Mack said.
To prepare the team for the possibility of that one second, Long’s current coach Matt Nagy had the Bears watch the end of Monday night’s Saints-Texans game. Drew Brees got the ball with 37 seconds left and one timeout. He needed five plays to get into field goal range, calling a timeout with two seconds left so Wil Lutz could hit the game-winning, 58-yard field goal.
“You go through those, you see situations throughout the league, you know what I mean, and Coach Nagy, he’s great pulling up those scenarios and showing us different things around the league just in case we’re in those situations,” Mack said. “It just so happened it happened today.”
Buster Skrine, whose offsides penalty on a missed extra point gave the Broncos the opportunity for the two-point conversion, said that Saturday film session inspired belief on the Bears sideline.
“Nagy, he’s like a god himself,” Skrine said. “We watched the Saints game on Saturday and how they did the same thing. He said it on the sideline, he said, ‘Hey, the Saints did it. We can do it, too.’ That’s exactly what happened.”
In his ninth NFL season, Skrine said he had never been in a game like this one. It was a slog for three-plus quarters. The Bears’ 13-3 lead seemed insurmountable. And after Kyle Fuller picked off Joe Flacco near the end zone with the Bears up 13-6, it didn’t feel like a game that would come down to a miracle situation.
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Then, in the final 37 seconds of the game, the teams combined for 11 points.
“One second to go and somebody kicks a 53-yard field goal,” Skrine said. “I applaud the organization as a whole, just to have everybody on the sideline believing we could still win.”
Skrine’s penalty was only possible because the Broncos got a delay of game on their initial two-point conversion attempt. Here’s how the gamebook handled the Broncos’ final play:
– (:37) (No Huddle, Shotgun) J.Flacco pass short right to E.Sanders for 7 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
– (Pass formation) PENALTY on DEN, Delay of Game, 5 yards, enforced at CHI 2 – No Play.
– B.McManus extra point is No Good, Wide Right, Center-C.Kreiter, Holder-C.Wadman.
– PENALTY on CHI-B.Skrine, Defensive Offside, 1 yard, enforced at CHI 20 – No Play.
– TWO-POINT CONVERSION ATTEMPT. J.Flacco pass to E.Sanders is complete. ATTEMPT SUCCEEDS.
As deflating as that turn of events was, Nagy said they were on the sidelines preaching, “We just watched this, let’s go do the same thing.”
“It gives you hope that it can be done,” Skrine said. “We had a timeout. They had a timeout. What was it, fourth down when we completed that? As long as you’ve got the ball with one second, like coach says, you can win.”
While the offense’s inability to move the ball all game put the Bears in that position, the defense spent most of last week saying they should’ve done more against the Packers, aside from holding Aaron Rodgers to 10 points.
With that in mind, knowing they had just allowed a touchdown and go-ahead two-point conversion, it was the defense that needed Trubisky and Piñeiro to bail them out.
“You don’t want that breakdown at the end,” Mack said. “This fucking altitude is the real deal, you know what I mean? But, end of the day, don’t care how you get these Ws, man. They’re hard to come by, but it was a great win. I’ll take it.”
Mack didn’t reference the loss in Miami from last year, specifically, but there were similarities. This time, the Bears were prepared for those 31 seconds, and then the one second that was all Piñeiro needed.
“Fuck, it kinda reminded me of something similar, but at the end of the day, man, you do everything you can to put the offense in great positions and I was just happy as hell that Mitch hit that throw over the middle and A-Rob knew to get down quick,” Mack said. “That’s the thing. Coach Nagy coaches us up all week long and for the past year (on) situational football, understanding that. Credit to him because that was a hell of a series right there.”
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The 25-yard pass, the longest play of the game for the Bears through the air, was all Piñeiro needed.
“(Trubisky) has ice in his veins, man,” Mack said. “He was able to step in there and throw that ball.”
As much as Trubisky has struggled through two games, backyard football situations tend to get the best out of him, and we saw it on the offense’s most important play.
“I knew we had to get a pass and I knew he was going to be open in the middle of the field,” Trubisky said. “I think the threat of them thinking I was going to run, or at least leave the pocket, left Allen open. I climbed the pocket and I knew it wasn’t going to be open right way, but if you delay they kind of let off and play soft. I think as a defense you just want the time to run out, so you let off a little bit as the play goes on.”
No one is confusing Trubisky for Brees, but the NFL is a copycat league above all else.
“Drew was surgical, and they were able to get down and Lutz was able to bang the field goal,” Long said. “The 30 other teams not involved in that all watched that clip this week. We knew before (Piñeiro) took the field, why not us?”
Mack hasn’t been on a team that started 0-2 since his rookie season, but he was well aware how much that one second can change the trajectory for the Bears.
“Hell yeah, I know about that,” he said. “Man, you think about everything that happened, all the games last year that were kinda close, especially that playoff game, and you put that pressure on that guy. Eddy P, you know what I’m sayin,’ birthday man. (His birthday was Sept. 13.) And he came out and nailed that motherfucker. Fuck. That was a helluva … that’s how you wanna play ball, man.
“Kudos to everybody else, sticking in there and believing. Glad to get the win and get the hell up outta here.”
(Top photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)