Bears Fans React to How Rams Defended Hail Mary Against 49ers
The end to Monday night's Rams-49ers game had to be both interesting and galling to Bears fans.
It was a game without a touchdown, won 12-6 by the Rams, and the really interesting part for Bears fans came when they saw the difference between good coaching at the end of a game and bad coaching. The bad coaching was what they saw from the Bears in a similar situation on Oct. 27.
Facing a possible Hail Mary scenario from the 49ers and with 11 seconds left and the ball at the 50, the Rams lined up with a single pass rusher and with extra defenders along the sidelines protecting against a pass out of bounds because the 49ers had no timeouts remaining.
They feared the 49ers would try to get the ball out of bounds with pass completion around 10 to 20 yards to try and make their final pass easier.
The 49ers then switched up their formation, so the Rams responded by switching and playing more of a straight man-to-man look. Brock Purdy had no choice but to throw quickly and incomplete, setting up a Hail Mary attempt from farther away.
If the Bears had guarded the sidelines against Washington on the down prior to the Hail Mary pass the same way the Rams did, they probably come away with a 15-12 win at Washington and who knows where they'd be now?
Matt Eberflus might even still be coach.
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Instead, they let the Commanders set up the Hail Mary, made it easier.
The Bears let the Commanders get a pass out of bounds at the 48 without guarding the sidelines, then Jayden Daniels had a far easier throw than the 66-yard plus throw he might have had without the completion. He had plenty of arm from 52 yards to get a Hail Mary to just short of the goal line, where it was tipped backward by Tyrique Stevenson to the waiting hands of the player he was supposed to cover, Noah Brown.
Possibly the most disgusting part of the Rams-49ers finish was the actual final play.
The Rams decided they weren't going to allow a Hail Mary to come off and they sent a four-man rush plus one blitzer and they sacked Purdy for a 6-yard loss.
End of game.
The Bears applied only token pressure on their Hail Mary loss and really didn't threaten to keep Daniels from getting the pass away.
Afterward Eberflus admitted they could have rushed an extra player at Daniels.
They had linebacker T.J. Edwards back essentially doing nothing but shadowing a running back 50 yards from where the pass went but not rushing the passer.
"That's an option, no doubt," Eberflus said. "I've seen people do that. We have that.
"But again, we chose to do the three-man rush. I think he had the ball for over 12 seconds, and I'm not sure what happened back there in terms of blocking and getting after the quarterback. (LB) T.J. (Edwards)
adds in a little there too because he (guards) the running back. But like I said, execution."
The bottom line was the Rams played it perfectly and the Hail Mary never came off.
The Bears botched it up in every possible way, starting with their strategy, and wound up with a fired coach and the start to a seven-game losing streak.
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