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Bears' Defense Gave Up Historically Bad Touchdown Run to Cardinals

The Bears defense made unfortunate history on a miraculous Cardinals touchdown run.

Stephen Douglas

The Bears should not have given up a touchdown here.
The Bears should not have given up a touchdown here. / NFL
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The Chicago Bears played the Arizona Cardinals in Week 9. The Bears were coming off a particularly brutal loss to the Washington Commanders where Jayden Daniels completed a Hail Mary to beat them on the final play of the game.

The Bears' defense found themselves in a similar situation at the end of the first half against Arizona with the Cardinals taking over at their own 30 yard line with 26-seconds remaining in the second quarter. Three plays later the Cardinals faced third-and-five near midfield with 12-seconds left.

The Bears did not want to get beat deep. For the second straight week, it didn't work out for them.

Kyler Murray handed the ball off to Emari Demercado who went right through the Chicago defense and into the end zone for a 53-yard touchdown run. If that seems like a rare type of touchdown that's because it was.

The longest run in the last 20 seconds of the first half since the AFL-NFL merger. Fifty-plus years and no team had ever given up a run that long in that situation. Absolutely brutal.

The Cardinals took a 21-9 lead into halftime and the Bears did not get any closer than that in the third quarter.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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