Five Plays to Remember, Five to Forget

The top Bears plays to remember and forget some up their few moments of elation and their complete frustration in the 2021 season that ended with coach Matt Nagy and GM Ryan Pace fired.

USA Today

A football season is a series of plays, one stacked on top of the other in each game, then each game stacked on another.

Within those play reps are moments of brilliance and complete disaster.

Here are the five moments to remember from a 6-11 Bears 2021 season and the five moments you'd forget, if you could.

As you could expect, it was much harder to come up with the five moments to forget because there were far too many to consider.

Five Bears 2021 Moments to Remember

1. Justin Fields' Go-Ahead TD Pass vs. Steelers

Fields stepped out of the pocket left as the pass blocking broke down and on the move left on first down from the 16-yard line pinpointed a touchdown pass just inside the left end zone boundary to Darnell Mooney as the Bears took a 27-26 lead on Pittsburgh. Sadly for the Bears, the moment wasn't as memorable as it could have been as the defense collapsed and allowed a drive to the winning field goal. But the fact Fields rose to the occasion in the clutch and threw a TD pass across his body while moving left, leading Mooney perfectly with the game on the line fueled hope for the future. Before he was fired, coach Matt Nagy was still bubbling about the way Fields looked at him and smiled just before going on the field prior to the drive. Either he liked the confidence Fields showed before that drive, or he just liked having someone smile at him instead of shouting "fire Nagy."

2. The Week 8 TD run vs. San Francisco

A 22-yard Justin Fields TD run against San Francisco was vintage Lamar Jackson. Heck, it was even a Gale Sayers or Barry Sanders type of run. Fields put his 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash on full display by going right, coming back left and then leaving the 49ers sprawled all over the field. Just like with Fields' best pass, his best run came in a 33-22 defeat. This play was just sick.

3. Robert Quinn's 18th Sack

The Bears defense had its share of tough moments but one shining moment came when Quinn picked up sack No. 18 against the New York Giants, a strip-sack of Mike Glennon. The historical value alone put it high on the charts since it broke Richard Dent's 37-year-old record. When the official All-Pro team comes out from AP, it's possible the 18 1/2 sacks this year could get Quinn on there. He might even get votes for comeback player of the year considering he had only two sacks last year.

4. Justin Fields' 2-yard TD pass to Jesper Horsted

It was only 2 yards. Nothing to get too excited about, right? Wrong. This TD pass in Week 5 of the season was the very first Justin Fields TD pass, and the Bears have to be hoping there will be many more to come with a new coaching staff in the future. The TD put the Bears ahead for good in a tight game, and later Fields clinched the 20-9 win over the Raiders with a key third-down conversion on a pass to Darnell Mooney.

5. Jakeem Grant's 97-yard punt return

The first of only two punt return TDs this season in the NFL also set the team record for longest punt return TD for the league's founding franchise, and came against Green Bay in a 45-30 loss. Considering the Bears have had brilliant return men throughout their existence, like Devin Hester, it's saying something to have one this long for a record. Grant had to dance around inside his own 5-yard line first right and then left before getting free down the sidelines.

Five Bears 2021 Moments to Forget

1. Aaron Rodgers' 6-yard scramble

The "I still own you" play. Rodgers came back to the right on the scramble and the Bears allowed Green Bay to march right back to the end zone 75 yards in the fourth quarter with 4:30 remaining, after Fields had rallied them back within 17-14 on a 5-yard TD pass to Mooney. Then Rodgers began shouting "I still own you," and after the game made up a story blaming his immature behavior on some woman making obscene gestures at him. Like people don't do that in every stadium in the world to opposing players anyway. The bird is the mildest thing Packer fans flip at Bears players in Lambeau. Rodgers' answer wasn't spontaneous with the question, coming several seconds after he had another response for the reporter. All of that made it sound as if he used a few seconds to conjure up a different story. It wasn't the last time Rodgers told a tall tale in 2021.

2. Deebo Samuel's 83-yard screen pass

Hope still existed with the Bears 3-4 on the year but leading 16-9 at home in the third quarter. They had San Francisco backed up and facing third-and-19 at its own 16 and the 49ers threw a wide-receiver screen to Samuel to the left at the line of scrimmage. It broke 83 yards to the 1-yard line against a blitz of Roquan Smith ordered up by Sean Desai. No one stepped up to slow or alter Samuel's course until DeAndre Houston-Carson knocked him out at the 1. The ensuring touchdown triggered 24 points in four possessions for the Niners and the game went their way 33-22, leaving the Bears far down in the wild-card chase.

3. Jadeveon Clowney 10-yard sack of Fields

Or you can pick any one of eight other times Fields went to the turf for a loss of yardage in this game due to a sack. That was just the first one and foretold what was to come. Nine sacks of Fields in his first NFL start occurred as Nagy insisted on going with five-man pass protection all day long while his rookie starter took a severe beating from the blitz and Cleveland's edge rushers. This wasn't just a moment to forget. The 26-6 loss was an entire game to forget. And fortunately for the Bears, it was the last time Nagy was the play caller as he abandoned it the next week.

4. Kindle Vildor's lost bearings

With the Bears still possessing an outside shot in the wild-card race, Andy Dalton rallied them with a fourth-and-11 TD bomb of 49 yards to Marquise Goodwin with 1:41 remaining in the game. However, Kindle Vildor somehow lost coverage on Sammy Watkins on third-and-12 from the Bears 32. He allowed a 29-yard completion to the 3-yard line, and the short TD run with 22 seconds left gave the Ravens a 16-13 win, leaving the Bears 3-7 and all-but mathematically out of it with their fifth straight loss.

5. Cassius Marsh's taunting penalty

There were plenty of other miserable moments to consider in here, like Eddie Jackson and Tashaun Gipson failing to touch down Van Jefferson in the opener in L.A. or rookie tackle Teven Jenkins acting like a toll gate for Preston Smith on a blind-side strip sack of Fields at Green Bay in his first action. But one Bears fans will carry with them forever is how Marsh, a street free agent signed after Khalil Mack was lost due to a foot injury, was wronged by official Tony Corrente. A sack Marsh had at the Bears 45 was going to force a punt and the Bears would have a chance to drive for the win or tie. Instead, Corrente called Marsh for taunting as he looked at the bench of his former team after the play, and the resulting first down let the Steelers get a field goal for a 26-20 lead. They eventually needed those three points or they would have had to score a touchdown on their final drive instead of getting a 40-yard field goal to win it. It was just one of several terrible calls made against the Bears in the game. In the end, Bears fans can now smile a bit. Corrente has retired. 

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