The Bears marched downfield, and won it 22-20 with a 49-yard field goal from Gould with two second remaining.
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Oakland replied in the second quarter as Derek Carr would throw it to first-round pick Amari Cooper for a 25-yard touchdown pass that was initially ruled incomplete but was overturned thanks to Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio correctly challenging the call. “I thought all-in-all, he played outstanding, and well enough for us to win”.
It sure was better than another Jimmy Clausen game, which I’m not sure anyone deserves to see again. What’s all the fuss about? Oakland still has a few growing pains to get through before they can be considered one of these teams. Next week’s a divisional game. We had zero interceptions the week before, and it didn’t go so well.
The first of those turnovers was a pass that bounced off his chest and was intercepted to give the Bears the ball at the Oakland 15-yard line midway through the second quarter.
It began inauspiciously, with a sack and an incompletion, but Cutler threw a fourth down completion into tight coverage to tight end Martellus Bennett – who caught 11 passes in the game – to keep the drive alive. Woodson, three days shy of his 39th birthday, undercut the route and stepped in to make an interception. There was no reason to think the Raiders couldn’t come out of Soldier Field with a W.
Bears center Will Montgomery sustained an ankle injury on the third play from scrimmage and is out for the game. Latavius Murray also had an off day, showing the same consistency issues.
Mychal Rivera caught a pass for 8 yards to get within Sebastian Janikowski’s field goal range, although four minutes still remained. He’s spent the rest of his career in Oakland, first from 1998 to 2005 and now from 2013 to 2015. The third down was crucial as another first down could’ve churned down the clock, but Helu was stuffed for a 1-yard loss.
“It’s hard to play an instinctual game and then move and have to realize we can’t exactly do that”, he said. “We didn’t execute the way we wanted and came up a little bit short”.
The Raiders defense started out strong. Carr then connected with Seth Roberts in the end zone, but Roberts’ second foot was just barely out of bounds upon review, and Oakland settled for a field goal to reclaim the lead.
On one hand, the late comeback win provided Cutler with a chance to answer critics who point to all the big mistakes he makes in big moments.
Had the Raiders managed to win in Chicago, they would have equaled their win total from 2014, a reminder, not that you’d really need one, that this is a team in transition that still has a lot to learn.
We ve got an active 46 (-man roster), we try to take advantage and utilize those guys, Del Rio said. However, due to Nate Allens’ injury, Carrie has been playing safety for the past two weeks. The fact is, the Bears were pretty confident on Wednesday that Cutler would be able to play, as long as he didn’t suffer a setback.
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Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reports that the Bears are planning on Cutler starting despite his hamstring injury still not being 100 percent healed.
