Courtney Cronin
Ben Child
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Ben Child
ESPN Employees Author
- Ben Child covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the corporate in July 2019. Previous to ESPN, he labored for varied newspapers in Texas, most lately at The Dallas Morning Information the place he coated faculty sports activities. He supplies each day protection of the Bengals for ESPN.com, whereas making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL reveals and ESPN Radio packages. A local of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the College of North Texas with a bachelor’s diploma in journalism. He’s an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist College and a member of the Asian American Journalists Affiliation (AAJA).
CINCINNATI — Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has steadily acknowledged that he feels calmest when video games are on the road. The previous No. 1 decide has gone as far to say his coronary heart fee drops when the stress to ship is at its highest.
That is the other of how Bears security Kevin Byard felt within the waning moments of Chicago’s gorgeous 47-42 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
“It is like taking years off my life,” Byard mentioned. “It is tremendous particular. That is the best recreation, best sport on this planet, simply the feelings up and down. For the followers that stayed, they undoubtedly received their cash’s value.”
After the Bengals scored two touchdowns in a 49-second span to erase Chicago’s 14-point lead, the Bears pulled off their fifth win of the season when Williams delivered a 58-yard landing to rookie tight finish Colston Loveland with 17 seconds remaining.
“We knew it was going to be a shootout,” Williams mentioned. “A kind of video games.”
The Bears’ protection watched the pendulum swing twice on two performs late within the fourth quarter. Byard picked off Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco with 3:07 remaining and noticed a 90-yard return get wiped away due to a go interference name on Chicago cornerback Nick McCloud. Two performs later, Flacco was picked off once more as Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds appeared to run again a 96-yard landing however was subsequently dominated down by contact at Chicago’s 4-yard line.
The Bears noticed their lead disappear when Flacco linked with tight finish Noah Fant for a 23-yard landing and transformed the 2-point try. Cincinnati then recovered an onside kick and took a one-point lead six performs later.
“It was dangerous on our half,” Bears security Jaquan Brisker mentioned. “We had been up two touchdowns. We have got to capitalize on the again finish. Clearly, the offense had our again. It is an unpleasant win, however we’ll take it.”
Trailing 42-41 after Cincinnati’s back-to-back rating, the Bears’ offense started its last drive with 50 seconds on the clock. After back-to-back incomplete throws, Williams scrambled for 14 yards after which hit Loveland over the center for the successful rating.
“That was most likely the craziest play I ever seen apart from the blocked discipline objective,” Brisker mentioned.
Added security C.J. Gardner-Johnson of Loveland: “He was choosing the knees up. He was gone. He was like a NASCAR.”
Within the dwelling locker room, Bengals gamers and coaches tried to course of a second shock defeat in as many weeks. Final weekend, the Bengals gave up a 15-point result in the beforehand winless New York Jets and allowed a landing within the last minute for a 39-38 dwelling loss.
What occurred Sunday was simply as robust for Cincinnati (3-6) to abdomen.
“It is sick,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor mentioned. “It is sick to lose like that. It is sick. That is what occurred. So we gotta personal it.”
The Bengals proceed to see distinctive offensive performances squandered by poor defensive play. They’re the primary staff in 59 years to attain 38 or extra factors in back-to-back contests and lose each.
Cincinnati operating again Chase Brown famous that the protection performed nicely earlier within the season when the offense struggled following quarterback Joe Burrow’s turf toe harm. However Brown lamented the staff’s lack of ability to have the offense and protection clicking on the similar time, and its lack of ability to discover a win.
“We put the ball ultimately zone and go up some extent on the finish,” Brown mentioned. “End the f—ing recreation. Simply finish it. Like, that is it. That is what we have to do, simply finish the f—ing recreation. Make them [give] us the ball again, allow us to f—ing go to ’22 Victory’ and let’s finish the sport. That is how I really feel.”
It spoiled maybe the perfect efficiency of Flacco’s 18-year NFL profession.
Regardless of coping with a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder, he threw for a career-high 470 yards with 4 touchdowns and two interceptions. Flacco, 40, led Cincinnati on two late scoring-drives within the closing minutes. He discovered broad receiver Andrei Iosivas for a 9-yard landing go with 54 seconds remaining, placing the Bengals forward by some extent.
However it did not final.
“I feel while you’ve performed plenty of video games, the best way you lose does not make it any worse, essentially,” Flacco mentioned. “I feel you study that these video games come all the way down to the final minute and you have to be prepared for something.”
In the long run, it was the Bears who had been capable of flip a calamitous collapse right into a highway victory.
“We’ll by no means apologize for successful on this league. It’s extremely exhausting to do,” Byard mentioned.