Bears do their best to lose again in Atlanta

So much for the shootout that was predicted for the Bears-Falcons Sunday night showdown between 3-1 teams with impressive offensive weapons.

There were some offensive fireworks late. But unfortunately for the Bears, the Falcons had the last blast in a 21-14 victory at the earsplitting Georgia Dome, while the Bears' red-zone offense blew up in their faces.

After the Bears tied it with 6:14 left on a 92-yard drive, the Falcons benefited from a short field, when Eric Weems returned the ensuing kickoff 62 yards to the Bears' 41. Two Matt Ryan-to-Tony Gonzalez passes netted 31 yards and set up a 5-yard TD run by Michael Turner with 3:06 left.

The Bears quickly drove from their 12-yard line to just inside the Falcons' 5 and faced a fourth-and-1. But left tackle Orlando Pace was flagged for a false start, and Jay Cutler's final pass, intended for Desmond Clark, fell incomplete.

That left the Bears with an unacceptable 1-for-4 on their red-zone opportunities, which combined with 3 turnovers and 9 penalties killed the numerous chances they had to come away with a road victory against a strong opponent.

"We had a lot of opportunities to win the football game," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "You can't make those type of mistakes on the road against a good football team. When you have the ball in the red zone you need to be able to get some points, and those turnovers offensively really hurt us a lot. You've got to be able to put points on the board in those situations."

The Bears totaled just 7 points on their four red-zone trips.

The penalties may have been even more aggravating. The final red-zone trip that died with 29 seconds remaining was sabotaged by 3 penalties. Before Pace's false start, there was a false start on left guard Frank Omiyale and an offensive pass interference flag on Earl Bennett.

"Very disappointing," Smith said. "(Despite) all the (negative) things, we still put ourselves in a position at the end to tie the game and have a chance to win the game. But we kind of self-destructed there a little bit."

Nate Vasher's interception at the Bears' 8-yard line with 9:48 left prevented the Falcons, already leading 14-7, from putting the game away earlier and helped the Bears get back in it. On the next play Cutler, who threw for 300 yards, completing 27 of 43 passes with 2 TDs, 2 interceptions and a passer rating of 79.6, scrambled for 30 yards. Three plays later rookie Johnny Knox drew a 23-yard pass interference penalty and then Cutler connected with tight end Greg Olsen for 41 yards, all the way to the Falcons' 6-yard line, despite double coverage. Three plays later, the Bears tied it on Cutler's 2-yard dart over the middle to Olsen with 6:14 remaining.

Late in the third quarter, trailing 14-7, the Bears finally threatened for the first time since they scored on the opening play of the second quarter. After five straight runs, three of them by Garrett Wolfe and a 6-yard scamper by Devin Hester out of the Wildcat formation or, as the Bears call it, "Cane," the double-covered Clark came down with a 24-yard jump ball from Cutler. Clark, double-covered again at the one-yard line, made his second catch of the game on a ball that Cutler somehow squeezed into a tiny opening.

From there it deteriorated for the Bears.

Cutler threw incomplete and then Matt Forte fumbled on back-to-back carries, losing the second one when it was recovered by linebacker Coy Wire. Forte was smothered all night. Forte finished with just 23 yards on 15 attempts.

"You can't turn the ball over, and I turned it over," Forte said. "It was the goal line. They know you're going to run, and it's my job to hold on to the ball, and I didn't do that."

After having little success early throwing the ball in the face of pass-rush pressure from the Bears, the Falcons switched to an underneath passing game and used it to drive 64 yards in 12 plays to take a 14-7 lead four seconds left in the first half.

Ryan, who wasn't sacked by the Bears for the second straight year, was pressured in the early going, completed 4 straight passes, all to running backs, to get the Falcons into the red zone.

Then he found 10-time Pro Bowl tight end Gonzalez in the end zone for a 10-yard score.

The Falcons' first score came when, for the second time in less than 20 minutes, safety Thomas DeCoud intercepted Cutler, returning this one 15 yards to the Falcons' 45.

DeCoud's first pick stymied the Bears' first red-zone trip. After his second pick, the Falcons needed just three plays to tie the score at 7-7 with 9:03 left in the second quarter. Roddy White caught a short pass from Ryan then streaked untouched into the end zone as two Bears defensive backs were blocked out of the play.

"He made a good play," Cutler said of the first interception. On the second one, "I overthrew it," Cutler said.

The Bears had taken a rare early lead after Devin Hester's 33-yard punt return gave them excellent field position at the Falcons' 44-yard line late in the first quarter.

A 23-yard rocket from Cutler to Earl Bennett on a crossing route picked up 23 yards and then Cutler led Knox exquisitely to the back of the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown.

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