Well, that was a lot closer than it should’ve been. After heading into halftime up 21-7 and the fourth quarter up 27-7, the Titans inexplicably let the Bears come roaring back. The Bears ended up blowing a fourth and goal series with under two minutes to go in the game, and wound up losing by six points.
The game started inauspiciously for the Titans. Jason McCourty committed a 33 yard pass interference penalty on the first offensive play of the game, but the Bears turned the ball over on downs on the same drive. After the Titans punted it away on the next possession, MATT BARKLEY and Jordan Howard stormed down the field and put up seven points on a DANIEL BROWN touchdown reception. Tennessee followed that up with a Derrick Henry touchdown drive that was fueled by a Marcus Mariota to Delanie Walker love connection. The Bears offense was shut down for the rest of the first half, while the Titans were able to add on two more touchdowns. One was a short Walker catch and the other was a spectacular diving catch by budding star Rishard Matthews on a beautifully thrown ball by Mariota.
After halftime, Mike Mularkey and his incompetent crew proved once again that they don’t know how to manage games. Instead of continuing to go with what had been working and throwing the ball all over the Bears crippled defense, which would have put the game out of reach, the coaches decided to rely on their run game and defense to close the game out. The run game faltered with DeMarco Murray and that threw Mariota off his rhythm. As the Titans weren’t sustaining drives, the Bears were able to throw all over a defense that was gassed and has shown to not be able to stop anyone this entire year.
Were it not for two dropped touchdowns on the final drive of the game, the MATT FREAKING BARKLEY led Bears would have won this game and the Titans’ playoff hopes would be gone. Instead, they head into the bye at 6-6 and with a chance to make something happen in these final four games. I wouldn’t trust this coaching staff to get us there, though, so temper your expectations.