The undefeated Chicago Bears will meet the winless Falcons at noon Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Matt Nagy’s team hopes to finish off a perfect September, a feat the organization hasn’t pulled off since 2010. That was also the year of the Bears’ last playoff win, for what it’s worth. As kickoff closes in, here’s the inside slant on three notable storylines.
1. The one that got away
Eddie Jackson made a promise Thursday afternoon. His visits to the end zone are nowhere close to finished. “There’s more to come,” Jackson vowed on a video conference call with reporters.
The Bears safety was still lamenting the one that got away last week in a win over the Giants, a 54-yard interception-return touchdown that was negated by an iffy pass-interference call against him. It was the second return touchdown of Jackson’s career that was wiped away by a penalty. A 35-yard pick-six against the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 was canceled by a Khalil Mack offsides infraction.
Jackson won’t soon forget either misfortune.
“Oh, yes, man,” he said with a smile. “I’ve kept track of them.”
Perhaps then it’s time to start a second list beside the bullet points of Jackson’s five career defensive touchdowns, an impressive total that already ranks third in franchise history
Those near-misses, though, always sting. In this latest instance, the fourth-quarter flag against Jackson nullified what almost certainly would have been the kill shot on the Giants that would have provided the Bears a 23-10 lead with 9 minutes, 57 seconds remaining and an extra-point attempt pending. Instead the Bears defense had to hold its breath until the last second, surviving only after the Giants misfired on a pass into the end zone on the final play.
A flag came flying in on that play also.
Said Jackson: “In my mind, I was like, ‘Oh, my God! Again? What is going on? Do they not want us to win this game?'”
Fortunately for Jackson and the Bears, that final penalty was against Giants receiver Golden Tate. Game over.
Still, it didn’t fully soothe Jackson, who felt cheated out of his earlier score after he broke on a pass to tight end Kaden Smith, deflected it into the air, snagged it and dodged and weaved and glided all the way to Soldier Field’s north end zone.
Jackson definitely made contact with Smith before the ball arrived. But with an equal right to the path of the ball, it’s debatable as to whether that constituted pass interference by the letter of the law.
Matt Nagy was apoplectic on the sideline, pulling down his neck gaiter and peppering every nearby official with his rage.
Even the official who threw the flag seemed to offer Jackson an apology on the field, a confession the Bears safety Tweeted about after Sunday’s game.
Jackson further explained the exchange Thursday.
“He just said he thought I ran through the back of the guy and not the side,” Jackson said. “And I guess he thought the ball hit (Smith). Like I had hit the receiver from behind and then the ball hit him. But the ball hit me. So I feel like he really didn’t see it.”
The official offered a quick “My bad.”
“I was like, ‘My bad?’ Like, whaaaat? We just walked off.”
It was a shame too. Because the interception return was pure Jackson, equal parts graceful and determined with the Bears safety proving he’s never content with simply securing a takeaway. He always wants the touchdown to go with it.
That’s just the mentality. And it also is why Jackson initially was more agitated than excited when fellow safety Deon Bush made his first career interception in the second quarter but then only squeezed 10 yards out of the return with an ill-advised cutback toward the middle of the field, where Giants center Nick Gates took him down.
Jackson admitted he and Kyle Fuller yelled at Bush “for not going in the right direction.”
“We told him, ‘Man, go left!'” Jackson said. “But he was so happy to get the ball. … He was excited and he told us he just blacked out.”
It shouldn’t take long for Bush to learn his next lesson from Jackson’s book.
“Everyone knows that when I get the ball, I think touchdown,” Jackson said. “And I feel like that’s the standard I want to hold the rest of our defense to — especially the DBs. Let’s not just settle with getting an interception. There are a hundred guys who get interceptions around the league. But there are very few scoring a touchdown when they get the ball.”
For what it’s worth, Jackson hasn’t had a touchdown since Thanksgiving 2018, a streak of 23 games and counting. That’s the longest scoring drought of his career.
At the very least, his return wizardry Sunday caught the attention of Pro Bowl return specialist Cordarrelle Patterson. “No way he should have scored that man,” Patterson said. “I was looking like, ‘Jesus, man!’ And he scored it.”
Patterson laughed.
“That’s something he’s been doing his whole career, man,” Patterson said. Picking it off and taking it back. That’s just what Eddie do. I can’t give him too much credit, though. Because he might try to take my job.”
2. ‘No one can touch me’
Dec. 12, 2015.
Talk about an assignment.
Bears play-by-play voice Jeff Joniak was inside Halas Hall with a 50-year-old gem from the franchise’s video vault. Beside him was the man who had turned a sloppy December Sunday at Wrigley Field into an iconic NFL performance.
Fifty years earlier to the day, 21-year-old Bears rookie Gale Sayers had shredded the poor San Francisco 49ers for six touchdowns. He had scored on runs of 21, 50, 7 and 1 yards. He had added an 80-yard touchdown catch from Rudy Bukich and an 85-yard punt return score. Sayers had touched the ball only 16 times yet accounted for 336 all-purpose yards in a 61-20 Bears win.
On a swampy field, on which everyone else was slipping and sliding and falling into puddles, Sayers looked like an Olympic downhill skier.
Now here he was, a half-century later with a chance to review the most brilliant performance of his Hall of Fame career.
Joniak’s adrenaline was racing. That old, grainy, black-and-white footage was still just as exhilarating.
Sayers’ humble description of his magic tickled Joniak.
“I had a lot of moves,” Sayers said. “And I just put everything I could into a run and I felt like I could score a touchdown.”
Every time he touched the ball.
On Wednesday, a day after Sayers died at age 77, Joniak found himself reflecting on that brief but special film session, his chance to review all six Sayers touchdowns with the “Kansas Comet” himself.
“What a thrill for me,” Joniak said. “You should have seen his face with the excitement of watching himself run and the confidence with which he described it. He was basically saying in his graceful way, ‘No one can touch me.’ “
Joniak recalled Wednesday that renowned Sayers quote.
I like to think that if my blockers can get me 18 inches of clearance, I’ve got a shot at breaking a long one.
“It is so accurate when you break down how he ran that day,” Joniak said. “On a muddy field inside Wrigley Field. Remarkable.”
Joniak is 58 now. As a kid, he collected sports trading cards and still remembers one Sayers card from the ’60s that was “a prized possession.”
“There was something about that card,” he said. “It was always the one I’d put on top of the pile or leave on my desk. I always loved running backs and still do to this day. I always admired what Gale did. No one ran like him. Honestly.”
To this day, Joniak marvels at Sayers ability to cut and the instant separation it created, how he could change direction so suddenly without appearing to lose speed.
And the vision? Joniak compares it to Devin Hester’s.
“Devin would tell me, ‘I see color and I run the other way,’ ” Joniak said. “With Gale Sayers, he saw daylight and he ran through it. … The uniqueness of that is impossible to describe properly. There are just certain people with the ability to do things on the field that no one else can or ever will.”
Sayers’ death reminded Joniak yet again of just how lucky he has been, how lucky all of Chicago has been really to be blessed with such a rich football tradition and so many of the game’s legends.
3. Oops! They did it again
By Wednesday morning, Dan Quinn was certain his team had flipped the page, that Sunday’s devastating loss to the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, wouldn’t create the kind of tailspin that could take weeks to get out of. The Falcons had no business falling to 0-2 last weekend. Not after shooting out to a 20-point lead in the first quarter. Not after taking a 29-10 cushion to halftime. Certainly not after they had a 39-24 advantage to protect with 7:57 remaining.
But lose the Falcons did. In unbelievable fashion yet again. On a 46-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal as time expired that gave the Cowboys a remarkable 40-39 win.
That blow came after the Falcons failed to recover an onside kick with 1:49 remaining, an execution blunder on Zuerlein’s unorthodox spinning kick that created a tsunami of confusion and controversy in Atlanta.
Asked Wednesday what he has learned in his six seasons as an NFL head coach about how to steady a team after such a dizzying setback, Quinn offered his perspective.
“When you go through some shared adversity, there’s a moment in there to come back stronger,” he said. “And there’s a moment in there when you’re the ones going through it together as a group, where you have some opportunity to transform based on the shared adversity. You’re all pissed and you all went through it together. You don’t like the result of it but you have it. And because you went through it together, you’re ready to fight and stand up together.”
All of it made sense.
It also sounded so familiar. As it turns out, the last time the Falcons faced the Bears — in the 2017 season opener — Quinn’s team was looking to move past another devastating blown lead and another unforgettable loss in their previous game. That one came on football’s biggest stage, under the brightest of spotlights. The Falcons’ 28-3 lead in the second half of Super Bowl LI against the New England Patriots melted away, turning into a flood of memes and GIFs that became the new symbol of collapsing in incomprehensible fashion.
The Falcons lost that Super Bowl 34-28 in overtime and traded the Lombardi Trophy for eternal disappointment.
Three years and two weeks ago, Quinn spent part of his Wednesday during Bears week revisiting that galling loss.
“It hurt like hell,” he said then. “And you wanted to make sure, No. 1, that your players were all right. We knew that would take the offseason. So we had those uncomfortable conversations and owned our performances, both good and bad.
“We learned a lot about ourselves. And then at some point you turn the page. That’s what competitors do. That’s what we have done.”
The Falcons won that game 23-17 on Sept. 10, 2017, at Soldier Field.
This time, the page-turning process, while unwelcome, shouldn’t be nearly as demanding or taxing. But it’s still worth wondering just how the Falcons’ huge lead Sunday unraveled for the Falcons. Their defense wound up surrendering 570 total yards and four second-half touchdowns.
With less than two minutes remaining, the Falcons special teamers also failed to recover that onside kick, giving the Cowboys their final possession to steal the win.
Quinn, though, said he found himself most bothered by two explosive passing plays his defense gave up. The first came early in the third quarter when both defensive end John Cominsky and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett jumped offsides. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott recognized the free play and launched deep over the middle to rookie CeeDee Lamb for 37 yards.
That came on third-and-6, and the Cowboys finished the drive with a hope-building touchdown.
One serious later, receiver Amari Cooper spun safety Keanu Neal like a top on a post route and Prescott’s play-action bomb ate up 58 yards. That Cowboys possession also ended in the end zone.
“Those plays that flip the field are significant,” Quinn said. “When they’re preventable or fixable, you want to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Both big plays turned into momentum-changing drives that ignited the Cowboys Dallas comeback. Sandwiched in between was a dropped 41-yard touchdown catch by Falcons All-Pro receiver Julio Jones on a perfectly thrown ball by fellow receiver Russell Gage Jr.
Some days, man. Some days.
Still, the onside-kick snafu became the hottest topic in Atlanta and bubbled up even further when Falcons owner Arthur Blank questioned whether his players understood the rule that they could touch the ball within the first 10 yards after it was kicked.
Quinn disagreed with that assertion, noting that Zuerlein’s odd kick put Jaeden Graham, Hayden Hurst and Olamide Zaccheaus in an unfamiliar situation. Rather than blocking as they would have on a high-bouncing kick, that trio inexplicably watched the ball roll past them before the Cowboys’ C.J. Goodwin — a former Falcon, of course — dived on the ball for the recovery.
That the error came after a Falcons timeout only added to the frustration.
In the end, the Falcons were left with their shared adversity instead of an important victory.
For the first time in NFL history, a team scored 39 points without a turnover and lost. Teams had been 440-0 in that situation, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Now the chatter is elevating that a loss to the Bears on Sunday and an 0-3 start that would come with it could put Quinn’s job in jeopardy.
The Falcons coach is no stranger to devastating losses and remains hopeful his team can rebound quickly.
“They are really difficult to go through,” Quinn said. “But when you do come out stronger and a little more dug in, you’re a little more focused on the clarity of what you need to do and how you want to play. Those are the moments when you hopefully look back and you say, ‘That was really hard to go through, but we learned a lot and grew from it.’ So that’s what I expect. …
“You get right back up, you take the lesson and you get on to the next one. Because you don’t want to miss the opportunity to learn from it. You damn sure don’t want it to happen again.”
