While they trailed 27-3 at halftime, the Washington Commanders had a chance to head into the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s game with the Chicago Bears trailing by only one possession. They opted against it.
A third-and-12 from the Chicago 23 initially looked like it would be a disaster for the Commanders. The pocket collapsed around quarterback Sam Howell, who quickly found himself surrounded. But Howell broke out away from the pack, scrambled to his right and eventually gutted out an eight-yard run to set up a fourth-and-three. Trailing by 16 points, the logical decision seemed to be to go for it. A field goal would have trimmed the deficit to 13 points, which is still not only two possessions, but two touchdowns.
Despite that, Commanders coach Ron Rivera sent his field goal team out there. Joey Slye banged home a 32-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 27-14.
Given the score and that it was already late in the third quarter, a case could have been made that the Commanders should have gone for it on fourth down, even if they picked up no yards on third down and were facing a fourth-and-12.
But given the time remaining, the score and that Washington needed only three yards, Rivera’s decision to kick a field goal was widely panned.
YOU DON'T SAY pic.twitter.com/H8VL8HBGn9
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) October 6, 2023
Pathetic for Washington to not go for it there lol. They were going to get it.
— Matt Clapp (@DaBearNecess) October 6, 2023
[Photo Credit: Amazon Prime]