The Bears Lost A Touchdown On The Dumbest NFL Play Of The Year

The Bears took a 17-7 lead into halftime against the Steelers on Sunday afternoon in Chicago, but it should have been 21-7 if it hadn’t been for the dumbest play of the year so far.

Chicago blocked the Steelers’ field goal attempt in the final seconds of the half and the ball fell into the hands of Marcus Cooper who had nothing but grass between himself and the end zone. It should have been a walk-in touchdown for Cooper, but because he decided to literally try and walk it in, the Bears had points taken off the board.

Cooper was caught from behind and stripped as he strutted into the end zone, reminiscent of near-touchdown follies of the past like DeSean Jackson dropping a ball on the one.

https://twitter.com/WorldofIsaac/status/912021804805435392

Because the Steelers pushed the ball out of the end zone on purpose, the Bears still had a chance at an untimed down from inside the one to get retribution. Instead, they had a false start that pushed them outside of the five and ended up settling for a field goal.

It is one of the strangest plays you’ll see all year and really ever, as it was an incredible sequence of failure from Pittsburgh having the kick blocked to Cooper getting stripped, to the Steelers shoving the ball out of the end zone illegally to the Bears false start.

As Michael Wilbon summed it up, it was historic stupidity.

It probably won’t be a fun halftime for Cooper and you can bet he’ll run through the end zone next time he finds himself in that position.