Oct 14th 2008 1:28PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Filed under: Bears, Falcons, NFC North, NFC South, NFL CoachingFrom the perspective of a Bears fan, I can vouch that the end of the game was like a swift kick to the jewels. The kick on everyone’s mind now, however, is the squib kick which granted the Falcons unbelievable field position at their own 44 with six seconds to play. The Bears were obviously scared of Jerious Norwood, who had taken the previous kick all the way into field goal range on his own. Head coach Lovie Smith is willing to cry mea culpa on the decision. Smith said after the game the reason for the squib instead of a conventional deep kick was what he perceived as the state of the injury-riddled coverage team.

“Hindsight is always a lot better,” Smith said. “I feel like I could have helped our team a lot better if we had just kicked the ball off deep, but it just didn’t work out that way.”I agree with the hindsight call. Many people have been pointing out how stupid the squib kick is in the aftermath of this game. I don’t totally agree in this case. Norwood was a huge threat, and the last thing you want is to allow a huge return in that situation. Immediately after the play, I was more aggravated with Robbie Gould.Continue Reading