An arguably missed pass interference on the Commanders in the final seconds of Thursday Night Football may have cost the Bears the game.
An ugly Thursday Night Football matchup had an ugly finish as the Bears failed to score in the waning seconds against the Commanders in part because of a pass interference flag that wasn’t thrown.
With 42 seconds to play, Justin Fields tried to hit Dante Pettis for a go-ahead touchdown but Darrick Forrest broke up the pass.
Replays showed that the defender got there early, prompting complaints all over Twitter from Chicago fans and neutrals alike.
NFL Twitter thinks Bears got screwed on missed pass interference
https://twitter.com/Zack_Pearson/status/1580756153180397569
The refs absolutely could have called pass inference on that third down. The Commanders would have had less to complain about in that instance than the Bears do in this one.
The correct call would have given the Bears a first down with 35 seconds remaining. It would have been tight, but they would have had multiple chances to score instead of one fourth-down play, which fell short.
Still, Chicago had three possessions inside the five-yard line and managed to score zero points from them. It’s presumptive to assume they would have scored even if they had been given the new set of downs.
While Fields did what he could to salvage a bad performance by his team, his receivers let him down over and over in the game. Right at the end, Pettis failed to catch his chance at a touchdown and Darnell Mooney had the game-winner in his hands across the goal line but he bobbled it.
The Commanders didn’t exactly deserve to win. Neither did the Bears. Chicago only has themselves to blame for letting the refs have a say.