Trestman felt Bears needed to stay on field
GREEN BAY, Wis. — It may have taken a lot of guts for the Bears to go for it on fourth-and-inches at their own 32-yard line, nursing a 24-20 lead with 8:50 left in their victory over Green Bay on Monday night.
But it didn’t take a great deal of debate.
“I can’t say that there was great analytical reasoning involved,” coach Marc Trestman said. “It was a sense that we needed to stay on the field, and I felt that we could, and that’s what we did. I knew that one way or the other, I wouldn’t look back and regret the decision that was made.”
There was no need for regret after Matt Forte picked up 3 yards.
What was going through the running back’s head?
“Get the first down,” he said.
The conversion allowed the Bears to put together an 18-play, 80-yard drive, and when Robbie Gould’s field goal went through the uprights, Green Bay — needing a touchdown to tie the game — had just 50 seconds left on the clock with no timeouts.
Ahead of schedule?
According to a report by ESPN’s Chris Mortenson, quarterback Jay Cutler plans to play Sunday against the Lions if he doesn’t suffer any setbacks during the week.
Cutler was expected to be out at least four weeks and then be week-to-week after suffering a torn groin muscle Oct. 20 against Washington. He did not practice last week.
“We’re just going to listen to whatever the doctors say,” coach Marc Trestman said after Monday night’s game.
They’re all big:
Quarterback Josh McCown is in his 11th year in the NFL, but he struggled to come up with a win that has meant more than Monday night’s 27-20 upset of the Packers that forged a first-place tie in the NFC North with both teams at 5-3.
“It would be hard to find one better than this, but they’re all special at every level, from back at high school to Sam Houston State to now. This is really neat because it means so much to our team because it’s a divisional opponent, and it’s for the divisional lead.”
Getting protective:
The Bears were No. 5 after eight weeks in fewest sacks allowed per pass play, and coach Marc Trestman expected better things to come. He said credit for allowing just 11 sacks in the first seven games should go to more than just the five offensive linemen, each of whom has started every game.
“We feel we can get better,” Trestman said. “Historically speaking we’re going to continue to get better as long as we continue to stay together; that’s just a natural.
“It’s not just those five guys. It’s Eben (Britton) when he’s in as the sixth guy, it’s Matt (Forte), it’s a lot of different things. It’s our tight ends, obviously. We’re not satisfied. But we think we’ve been good giving the quarterback a chance to complete a throwing motion and be efficient, but we think we can do better.”
Josh McCown was sacked once Monday night for a 1-yard loss.
Not such sad sacks:
Players who were active for the Bears on Monday had combined for just 4 sacks this season. But Shea McClellin had a career-best 3 sacks vs. the Packers, giving him 3½ for the season. Corey Wootton and Julius Peppers each had 1.
… The Packers had won each of the previous six meetings vs. the Bears, including playoffs, and eight of the last nine. … The Packers are now 23-2 in their last 25 at Lambeau Field. They had won 17 straight at home played Nov. 1 or later.