Chicago Bears' Cunningham blames himself after challenge backfires

While the heat dialed up on John Fox's hot seat Sunday, he never dripped a bead of sweat.

He never blamed a staff member whose Game Day job is to watch replays.

"It's all of us. I'm not going to point fingers," the Bears coach said of a challenge that went so terribly wrong for his team Sunday at Soldier Field that it might end up being a defining moment for him this season. "It stops here."

Benny Cunningham pointed a finger. At himself.

"I thought I was in, until I looked up at the review," the Bears backup running back said. "I was just competing, trying to make a play for the team. It was just unfortunate, probably a bad decision, looking back on it."

How is giving full-out effort a bad decision?

Welcome to the complexity that is Bears football. Their 23-16 loss to a reeling, Aaron Rodgers-less Green Bay team - following a bye week - dropped their record to 3-6 and 12-29 in Fox's third season.

"Coaches go over it every week," Cunningham said after the Packers snapped a three-game losing streak. "Unless it's fourth down, you don't reach the ball out on the goal line."

But Cunningham did.

Trailing 10-3 early in the second quarter, the Bears faced third-and-13 from the Packers 25. Mitchell Trubisky dropped a short pass into the hands of Cunningham, who darted toward the end zone. As he was pushed out of bounds by Marwin Evans around the 2, Cunningham, with two hands on the ball, stretched his 5-foot-10 frame and soared toward the pylon.

"Ball in your hands, heat of the moment," Cunningham said.

The Bears were going to have first and goal - until Fox threw his flag, challenging the out-of-bounds ruling.

But only the Bears can win a challenge and lose at the same time.

"As he was lunging toward the goal line, he lost the ball in his right hand first, probably, I'm going to guess, 2 feet maybe short of the pylon," referee Tony Corrente said. "As he got even closer, the left hand came off. We had to put together two different angles in order to see both hands losing the football. After he lost it the second time, it went right into the pylon. Which creates a touchback."

Instead of the Bears being 2 yards from a tying touchdown, the Packers had first down at their own 20. Because the play was reversed, funny enough, the Bears didn't lose a timeout.

While every touchdown in the NFL is reviewed, every potential TD is not.

"Only if we put points on the board," said Corrente, whose crew did not.

A standup Cunningham took full responsibility for the momentum-changing play.

"He took responsibility because he's a man and he has pride," defensive end Akiem Hicks said of his teammate. "He wanted to do the best for the team."

So did Fox, whose decision not only backfired but looked even worse after the one-touchdown loss. The Bears didn't score a TD until Trubisky's deep ball to Joshua Bellamy covered 46 yards and pulled the home team within 16-13 with 10:39 left in the fourth quarter.

"Coach had my back," Cunningham said. "It just didn't work out for us as a team. I appreciate him throwing the flag, saying I was in.

"I feel like we were rolling as an offense (before the overturned call)," Cunningham added. "I feel like that play did have a big impact on the game. Worst-case scenario, we walk away with 3 points in that situation. You never want to leave points on the field."

The Bears have made a habit of doing it.