CHICAGO -- Nine seconds remained before the end of the first half Sunday, and the Chicago Bears held possession at the Green Bay Packers' 9.
But instead of walking away with momentum and a 24-21 advantage at intermission, the Bears strolled to the locker room behind four points, after Martellus Bennett's second-effort stretch failed to yield a touchdown as time expired.
Did the Bears mismanage the clock at the end of the first half? That's one of many questions being asked in the wake of Chicago's 38-17 loss at Soldier Field to the Packers.
"We had nine seconds left, and we called a play where everybody is headed to the end zone," Bears coach Marc Trestman said. "I don't know if Marty [Bennett] flattened his route working to get open. I thought we made the right call. We had plenty of time. It was really an excellent play defensive to make that stop at the 1-yard line as it was called. Clearly with nine seconds left, we were going to take a shot in the end zone. We had the play we wanted. We just came up short."
Jay Cutler moved the Bears from their own 20 to the Green Bay 9 in five plays with the bulk of the yardage on the drive coming on a pair of completions to Bennett for 53 yards. With no timeouts and nine seconds left in the half, Trestman called for a route that featured four vertical receivers.
But with little room to maneuver in the red zone, Bennett flattened out his route to get behind the linebackers. Upon making the catch, Bennett tried to stretch out the ball to break the plane of the end zone for the touchdown.
But Packers rookie Ha Ha Clinton-Dix held back Bennett, who outweighs the safety by 57 pounds.
"Four verticals, we're on the 9," Cutler said. "He's gonna bend it around that backer. You feel like he's gonna catch it and land in the end zone. If we go back, obviously [we'd] work outside and throw it away. I liked the call. I liked the throw. I thought the defender made a heck of a play. You see the replay. It looked like he had the ball over the goal line. But we didn't get that one either. Three points there didn't win or lose us the ballgame."
Trestman said the Bears discussed ways they could preserve some time for their offense after the team's failed onside kick attempt which gave Green Bay possession at its 39 with 3:46 left in the half. The Packers scored in just two minutes and 47 seconds on a 22-yard touchdown pass to Randall Cobb from Aaron Rodgers to go up 21-17 after the extra-point kick.
Chicago's ensuing drive began with 1:03 remaining in the first half.
"We talked about calling timeouts in the previous possession," Trestman said. "We did do that. I can't give you specifics, and there are reasons why we didn't. But we did have that discussion to try to save a little bit more time. There was a first down, and a second and one, if I'm not mistaken. I'm going to go through the whole litany, certainly. But we were in a position and in a discussion about how we were going to save time on the last drive, and we didn't get it done."
