The Chicago Bears offense was unable to advance in the red zone until midway through the fourth quarter during their game against the Washington Commanders. The Bears offense struggled against Dan Quinn’s defense through the first three quarters and scored only on a 56-yard touchdown run by quarterback D’Andre Swift late in the third quarter.

The Bears stayed in the game thanks to their defense, which had limited the Commanders to just 12 points up to that point. The Bears were up 12-7 entering the red zone with a legitimate shot at taking the lead for the first time all game.

The Bears drove the ball to the Chiefs’ one-yard line, setting up a third-and-goal opportunity. With a chance to take the lead, the Bears decided to hand the ball off to center Doug Kramer. Kramer fumbled the handoff and the Chiefs recovered the football.

The play call was questioned because the Bears could have avoided the mistake by handing the ball to one of their quarterbacks rather than their limited-experience center rushing the football in one of the game’s most important situations.

Bears wide receiver DJ Moore was in the medical tent while the play was going on and was surprised by the call.

“I don’t know the reasoning behind the play call,” Moore said on the “The Mully & Haugh Show“, Monday. “It’s been a few weeks, but I didn’t think we’d be called in a game like this. When I came out of the tent and I just saw him running, I was like, ‘What the hell happened?'”

Despite fumbling in a critical situation, the Bears were able to score later in the game to take a 15-12 lead. Roschon Johnson took the ball into the end zone from the one-yard line, leaving the Chiefs with just 25 seconds left on the clock.

The Bears simply had to keep the Commanders from scoring in the final seconds to get the win. The Bears couldn’t execute. They allowed Jayden Daniels to complete a 13-yard pass to Terry McLaurin and go out of bounds with six seconds left. The completion set up a Hail Mary from Daniels, whose pass into the end zone was tipped and caught by Noah Brown for the game-winning touchdown.

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Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson drew criticism for the mistake after he was seen taunting his Commanders fans early in the game instead of preparing for the game’s final play.

Stevenson has since apologised, and Moore admitted on ‘Mully and Haugh’: “That play doesn’t define him as a player”.

“The captains were talking about how we have to solve this … we have to approach it as a leadership group in front of the team,” Moore said. “I don’t know (what the punishment will be), that’s not up to us. But we can address ourselves as captains, and upstairs they’ll have to do what they’re going to do.

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