LONDON — There were many ways the Bears lost the game, but one final mistake on special teams sunk them. Rather than punt, the Raiders stayed alive and went in for the go-ahead touchdown late in a 24-21 victory.
The Bears were up 21-17 and set to get the ball back with 6:01 remaining when the Raiders punted on fourth-and-6 from their own 22-yard-line. Tarik Cohen returned it to midfield, but it was washed out by linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis getting flagged for running into punter A.J. Cole.
That penalty gave the Raiders another shot, now facing fourth-and-1, and they converted it on a fake punt run by safety Erik Harris. From there, they marched along until Josh Jacobs ran into the end zone for the lead with 1:57 left.
Pierre-Louis had mixed feelings about his fateful miscue.
“On the punt play, in my humble opinion, I thought I got pushed into the guy, but they call it how they call it,” he said, noting that he saw one replay on the field but hadn’t had the chance to examine the play closely. “I have to be smarter on that for my teammates and just keep going from there. I’m definitely going to use that as motivation.
“In my humble opinion, I thought I got pushed into the guy, but at the end of the day, I’ve gotta be smarter.”
That still leaves the question of why he went lunging at Cole in the first place when the Bears were about to get the ball back with the lead and good field position.
“I’m a great special teams player, [and] you try to make a play for your team when your number is called,” he said. “It’s times like these that you get to learn from.”
