Fox: Hindsight is 20-20 on replay reversal
The replay reversal that turned a potential Bears touchdown into a touchback that gave the Packers the ball was still a hot topic a day after Green Bay's 23-16 victory.
On third-and-13 from the Packers' 25-yard line, Benny Cunningham took a screen pass from Mitch Trubisky and navigated his way close to the goalline, extending the ball toward the pylon as he was being tackled out of bounds.
Cunningham was originally ruled out of bounds at the two-yard line. The Bears challenged that the ball touched the pylon before Cunningham was out of bounds. But referee Tony Corrente, after replay review, ruled Cunningham lost control of the ball just before it touched the pylon. That gave Green Bay the ball at the 20.
“It's a good question, a fair question,” Bears coach John Fox said. “Unfortunately, I can't really respond exactly how I would like to. Obviously in those situations, hindsight is 20-20. I probably would not challenge that if I were given the opportunity again. And we'll leave it at that.”
Fox was asked about the feedback he got from assistants upstairs in the coaching booth who are tasked with providing input on potential challenges.
“They saw it pretty much how I thought I saw it,” Fox said. “We'll leave it at that. We have to ultimately go with what the officiating crew goes with. In hindsight, I would not have challenged it, because it took points (away). However many points we don't know, but in my opinion, it hurt our cause.”
Just remember:
When he spoke to his team about Sunday's loss, coach John Fox stressed that just a week ago, there were questions about the Bears being overconfident because they were point-spread favorites against the Packers.
“As I reminded our team, only one game's happened since last week and we were the Second Coming,” Fox said. “We were (reportedly) getting overconfident. Only one game's happened. So that's the way we'll approach it.”
Fox was asked if he agreed that the Bears were overconfident heading in to Sunday's game.
“No. I didn't say that — you did,” Fox told the questioner. “I denied that. But all I'm saying is one game's occurred from our (alleged) overconfidence to now.”
By the numbers:
Starting with the 2010 NFC championship game, the Bears have lost eight straight games to the Packers at Soldier Field. Since 1994, the Bears are 4-21 at home against Green Bay.