Bears Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Sep 22, 2008 5:00PM

It's looking like it's gonna be a long season for Bears fans. For the second time in as many weeks, the team squandered a double-digit lead in the second half and lost to Tampa Bay 27-24 in overtime.

It looked like the Bears would move to 2-1 on the young season when, with less than seven minutes remaining, Kyle Orton connected with his new BFF Brandon Lloyd for a touchdown to give the Bears a 24-14 lead. With a reborn running game, they should have been able to run down the clock without allowing the Bucs the scores necessary to blow this game, right? Especially when they were led on offense by Brian Griese, whom the Bears' defense had practiced against for the past two years. But Griese, who set a Tampa Bay record by throwing 67 passes, drove his team into field goal range and then drove them down the field again for the tying TD with less than 10 seconds left in the game to force overtime.

While the team collectively blew the opportunity to win in regulation, one player most likely cost the Bears the game in OT. With Tampa pinned deep in their own territory, Charles Tillman jumped into a scuffle late and was flagged for an unnecessary roughness personal foul after the Bears had just stuffed the Bucs on third down. Rather than the Bears receiving a punt at midfield and then trying to get into field goal range, the flag gave the Tampa offense new life. And they took advantage as they proceeded to march 90 yards to set up the game-winning field goal.

This Bears team, if it had the ability to finish at all, would be 3-0 right now. But more bunnies than Bears, they don't seem to be lacking any sort of killer instincts. It looks like our baseball teams will be in the hunt later into the fall than our football team.

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh