Bears film review: 6 brutal, game-costing mistakes vs. Lions

If there’s one snapshot from the Bears’ 34-30 loss to the Lions on Sunday, it’s quarterback Mitch Trubisky grasping for a ball that was knocked out of his hands at his own 7-yard line before the Lions recovered the fumble and turned it into the game-winning touchdown.

But the Bears’ failures went far beyond just Trubisky, who otherwise played well enough to win.

There were many costly moments during a game in which the Bears had a 10-point lead and the ball with five minutes left. Here they are in reverse chronological order:

Montgomery comes up short

The Bears’ scramble to score late and escape with the win ended when running back David Montgomery couldn’t convert a fourth-and-one with 16 seconds left. He reached with the ball as he went down, and film review showed the officials were correct to mark him decisively short.

But it’s important to remember that if Montgomery had succeeded, all this would have given the Bears was one or two attempts at the winning touchdown from the Lions’ 19. Victory still would have been a long shot.

Montgomery did what he could. The big lapse here was by right tackle Germain Ifedi, who could have helped Montgomery secure the first down by holding off backup defensive tackle Kevin Strong for one more millisecond.

Robinson forgets where he is

It’s hard to hammer wide receiver Allen Robinson for an occasional mistake, considering he has been incredibly steady in a very unsteady Bears offense. But this one was bad.

On the play before Montgomery’s fourth-and-one attempt, Trubisky hit Robinson near the right sideline on third-and-five for what was already a three-yard gain at the time of the catch. Robinson had more than enough room to get two more yards for the first down because he shook Lions cornerback Amani Oruwariye so badly that he fell down.

Robinson, however, ducked out of bounds just short of the first-down marker at the 19. Sure, it was important to stop the clock with 16 seconds left, but he could have spared one more second in order to pick up the first down. Or he could have simply reached forward with the ball.

Trubisky’s lack of awareness

Trubisky has 26 career fumbles in 46 starts, and there have been some costly ones the last two seasons. Those that immediately come to mind are a non-contact fumble that led to the Chargers’ game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter last season, a fumble the Packers returned for a touchdown two weeks ago and the game-changing one with 1:46 left Sunday.

Fumbles continue to be an issue.

“Continue to be an issue? I mean, it was last week and this week,” Trubisky said. “I’m emphasizing ball security in practice. That’s something I always do.”

This fumble happened because he had no sense that Lions defensive end Romeo Okwara was coming from his right side. Okwara knocked the ball free as Trubisky got ready to throw.

The play call never should’ve happened, of course. And Ifedi got dominated. But if Trubisky had just tucked the ball and taken a sack, the Bears would have punted and had a much better chance to win.

Kickoff strategy goes awry

Why were the Bears backed up so close to the end zone in the first place? Because of a gamble that backfired on the preceding kickoff. With the Bears protecting against an onside kick, Darnell Mooney had no blocking for his return. He caught the ball at the 6 and got to the 11.

“It’s kind of a Catch-22 because if . . . you get caught off guard and they get the onside kick, you’re in trouble,” coach Matt Nagy said. “What we wanted to do is be able to protect for that onside kick, but still [do] a little bit better of a job than returning it to where we got it.

“You can certainly go either way. We decided to go that way with the onside kick, to protect [against] that.”

Terrible third-down play

The Bears could have expanded their lead to 33-20 or better had they converted a third-and-four at the Lions’ 40 with 7:32 left. They overcame left tackle Charles Leno’s holding penalty on second down to get to a manageable third down, but the play was a disaster. Under immediate pressure, Trubisky threw a short pass to the right for Cordarrelle Patterson, who could get only one hand on the ball and didn’t make the catch. Even if he had, he still would have been at least two yards short of the first down.

Blocked PAT comes back to bite

All points count the same, so when Cairo Santos’ extra-point attempt in the first quarter was blocked, it completely changed the Bears’ scenario at the end.

Okwara blew through rookie offensive lineman Arlington Hambright and Alex Bars on the left side with minimal resistance and stuffed the kick with his right hand. It was the Bears’ first missed extra point this season, keeping their lead at 9-0, and it would have been inconsequential had they continued rolling. Instead, they trailed by four in the final minutes. That made a field goal pointless — unfortunate for the Bears because they reached the Lions’ 29 with about a minute left.