Both Shea McClellin and Corey Wootton forced blockers to hold them (each was penalized), otherwise both likely would have had sacks.
Cornerbacks
Grade: 9
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Sunday tick-tock: Bears' playoff countdown
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VOTE: Bears in or out of the playoffs?
To make the playoffs, the Bears must beat the Lions on Sunday and the Vikings must lose to the Packers. How will it go?
To make the playoffs, the Bears must beat the Lions on Sunday and the Vikings must lose to the Packers. How will it go?
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They're in: Bears beat Lions, Vikings lose to Packers. (648 responses)
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They're out: Bears beat Lions, Vikings beat Packers. (219 responses)
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They're out: Bears lose to Lions. (458 responses)
1325 total responses
(Results not scientific)
This poll is closed to voting.
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1000 Football Drive, Lake Forest, IL 60045, USA
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Soldier Field, 1410 Museum Campus Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA
Tillman actually covered Larry Fitzgerald about as well as you can cover him—and Fitzgerald still caught six passes for 85 yards on plays in which Tillman was on him.
The corners accounted for three takeaways. If Tim Jennings did not unnecessarily wrap his arm around the back of Fitzgerald's neck in the first quarter and draw a penalty, he still could have poked the ball away and the Bears would have had another interception, by Chris Conte.
Safeties
Grade: 7
Major Wright was solid in run support and deflected a pass on a blitz. He got low and shot past guard Pat McQuistan before he could be blocked to tackle Beanie Wells for a loss of 1 that helped set up Zack Bowman's touchdown.
Anthony Walters stepped in for injured Chris Conte, played hard and didn't make any major mistakes.
Linebackers
Grade: 7.5
Nick Roach played his best game of the year, faring well on run defense, contributing as a blitzer and showing competency on pass drops. He was in on 14 stops.
Lance Briggs covered a lot of ground and was a force as usual.
Special teams
Grade: 5
The Bears did a lot of good things on special teams, but they had some awful plays as well.
On the blocked field goal attempt, end Kellen Davis tried to stop both Adrian Wilson and Justin Bethel with extended arms. Both shot by him, and Wilson blocked the kick. Bethel recovered and scored.
Devin Hester had a clear impact as a returner, but he made a terrible decision to field a punt at the 2, and then he reversed field after bringing to the 12 before finally being tackled at the 4. He also may have been at least partially responsible for two punts bouncing into his blockers.
The Bears read the Cardinals' fake field goal attempt well. Tillman slowed down Jay Feely and Amobi Okoye chased him down, while J.T. Thomas dropped into coverage to take away intended receiver Jim Dray.
Quarterback
