CINCINNATI — In a rare move, Bears coach John Fox won a challenge in the fourth quarter Sunday — and it got his team the ball. Officials ruled that Bengals receiver A.J. Green caught a ball down the left sideline, but replay showed safety Eddie Jackson ripped the ball away before he went out of bounds. The officials agreed, giving the Bears the ball.
Fox lost a challenge earlier when officials confirmed an illegal-forward-pass call against quarterback Mitch Trubisky in the first quarter . Fox has won just 7-0f-16 challenges in three seasons with the Bears and 49-of-131 in his head coaching career. And one of the six challenge “victories” was actually a loss, when Bennie Cunningham’s lunch for the pylon turned into a touchback.
On a second-and-12 play from his 30-yard line, Trubisky completed was flushed out of the pocket and hurriedly completed a pass to Kendall Wright for a 19-yard gain. But he pretty clearly was ahead of the line of scrimmage when he released the ball. Fox challenged anyway and lost. So the Bears ended up with a loss of down, a five-yard penalty and a loss of a time out from that scenario.
On third-and-17 following the infraction, Trubisky threw a three-yard pass to tight end Daniel Brown and the Bears punted.
