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There was plenty of blame to go around for the Chicago Bears following their second-half collapse and eventual 31-28 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 4, but first-round rookie Darnell Wright is laying the responsibility for their failed fourth-down conversion at his own feet after making a self-described “critical error.”
The play in question came with 2:57 left in the fourth quarter when the Bears decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 instead of kicking a go-ahead field goal from Denver’s 18-yard line. The hope had been that, with a fresh set of downs, the Bears could run down much of the clock and force the Broncos to burn their timeouts before kicking their field goal, giving them a much better chance of coming away with their first win of the season.
Instead, the Bears were stuffed attempting to run Khalil Herbert to the left side and turned the ball over on downs, a result for which Wright blames himself.
“The fourth down was probably on me,” Wright said in the locker room during the postgame, via Nicholas Moreano of CHGO Sports. “I had a critical error on a block. I mean, we had [it], it put us in a good situation. Just have to execute.”
Wright isn’t wrong about the mistake. After initially helping tight end Cole Kmet with an outside block at the start of the play, the rookie right tackle tried to slip inside and cut off blitzing Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton, but he was too slow and ended up whiffing, leaving Singleton to shoot the gap nearly untouched and bring down Herbert.
But hey, props to Wright for being accountable — even if he wasn’t the only one at fault.
Darnell Wright Has Showed Promise in First 4 Games
All things considered, Wright has looked pretty good as the Bears’ new starting right tackle over the first four games of his NFL career. He has experienced his fair share of rookie moments, including being out of sync with the snap count at least once during their loss to the Broncos, but the physical traits the Bears believed they would be getting with him — particularly as a run-blocker — have continually shown up on the tape.
Through four games, Wright has earned Pro Football Focus’ highest run-blocking grade (73.1) and the second-highest overall grade (65.9) among all rookie offensive tackles, beating out fellow first-round picks such as Paris Johnson Jr. and Broderick Jones. His pass-blocking skills have left something to be desired, however, with him giving up the most pressures (12), hurries (eight) and sacks (three) among the rookie tackles.
In fairness, the Bears have not exactly been the best pass-blocking unit as a whole through the first four games of the season. Cody Whitehair (11) and Lucas Patrick (10) have each given up double-digit pressures along with Wright. Justin Fields has also been sacked second most in the league (17), even though some of them are his fault.
At least with Wright, there has been enough upside thus far to be encouraged.
Matt Eberflus Defends Decision to Go for It on 4th Down
The Bears ultimately paid the price for their failed fourth-down conversion. Instead of walking away with an easy three points, they gave the ball back to the Broncos — who had scored 21 unanswered points — with the game tied and allowed them to march down into field-goal range with ease. The Bears did get an opportunity to respond, but the circumstances were reversed with them playing from behind with 1:46 on the clock.
Nevertheless, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus stood by the decision to go for it during Sunday’s postgame and pointed to the success of the run game (171 yards on the day) as the reason why they felt comfortable taking such a high-stakes gamble on the play.
“Just because of the way we were running it,” Eberflus said on October 1. “It was a half a year, so I felt great about getting that right there. Every situation is different. You have to look at the game in its entirety. I think the way we were running the football and the confidence that we had on offense in that moment. I would say that we’re going to do that right there.”
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