Anatomy of a Drive: Bears Waste a Turnover

The frustrating part of the Bears Sunday night loss to the Giants was not the 10 sacks, Jay Cutler's injury, nor the inability of the Bears to run the ball. No, the truly aggravating part was that thanks to some miracles by the defense, the Bears were still in it until late in the game.

A drive in the middle of the fourth quarter illustrated this perfectly. To set the scene, Zack Bowman had just forced Ahmad Bradshaw to fumble to save a touchdown. The Bears had the ball on their own one-yard line. At this point, Chicago was down by just one touchdown, so a score off of a turnover could have evened things up. Even if there was no score, the Bears could have used this opportunity to set up Brad Maynard for a booming punt that would give the Giants bad field position. What happened?

Forte rushed to the left for no gain -- With Collins backed up in the end zone, Forte was unable to find a hole and move the ball at all. He came close to giving up a safety, as he was tackled just barely out of the end zone.

Collins incomplete pass to the left -- Collins unloaded the ball to the left as Barry Cofield came crashing at him. The move allowed Dave Tollefson to bat down the pass. The Bears were lucky that Tollefson has terrible hands, or that could have easily been an interception in the end zone, giving the Giants an easy six points.

Forte rushed to the right for 1 yard gain -- Small victories are encouraging, but not nearly enough in this game. It was the same problem that we've seen with the running game from day one. Forte had no holes to run through, and he didn't create any opportunities for himself. As a result, the Bears were forced to punt.

Brad Maynard punt -- Because the drive produced one measly yard, Maynard was forced to punt from the end zone. Asking the man to punt nine times was cruel enough, but making him punt from the end zone completely wasted both Maynard's talents and the gift that the defense had given the offense. 

On the next possession, the Giants started on the Bears 32 yard line. They scored quickly, putting the game out of reach.