CHICAGO -- Soldier Field officials released a statement after Chicago Bears' 23-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, saying it's unclear what caused malfunctions with the game clock.
For much of the second half, the time remaining in the game was announced on the field by officials because the scoreboard was improperly displaying the time.
"The Daktronics scoring and timing system experienced several malfunctions today during the game. Daktronics is the leading manufacturer of NFL scoring and timing systems and displays in the NFL. At this point in time, it's undetermined what caused the issues," the statement from Soldier Field said. "Daktronics is investigating whether the cause was software or hardware related. Despite a preventative maintenance program with Daktronics that includes having two technicians on site for each game, the problem was not able to be corrected during the game."
Bears quarterback Jay Cutler admitted the clock situation affected the Bears.
"We had the lead. It gets dicey whenever you're in four-minute, and you're trying to figure out the clock management situation," Cutler said. "It wasn't the greatest situation, but we made due."
Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said he "wasn't sure at all" how much time was left in the game as he was attempting to rally his team for a chance to tie the game.
"It was tough trying to communicate the time and trying to call a play at the same time when we were working against the time," Bridgewater said. "It was one of those deals where we had to go out there and execute the calls and trust that whenever it was time to spike the ball [to stop the clock], the coaches would tell us when."
