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Did a Dropped Hail Mary Pass Change the Course of the Bears Franchise?

Larrylambert
3 min readDec 18, 2023

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Who knew Darnell Mooney was so influential?

Creative Commons: Ryan Dickey

When it comes to losing, the Bears have been amazingly inventive when it comes to devising new way to do it. Sunday saw them adding yet a new item to their repertoire. The dropping of a Hail Mary pass that falls into a receiver’s lap. Darnell Mooney’s lap in particular.

Once again, the Bears had a 10-point lead in the quarter and frittered it away. Once again, the offense did nothing and the defense was great. Until the all too familiar fourth quarter collapse. But this game could have been bailed out on the last play of the game.

What if the Bears had won?

Had the Bears won, they and their fans might have been able to maintain playoff delusions. Now, in terms of evaluation for the rest of the season, nothing else really matters. The rest of the games really are meaningless.

Had the Bears won, keeping Justin Fields might still be in place. I doubt that is the case now. In the case of Fields, probably the only issue left remaining is what kind of draft choice he will bring to the Bears.

By the way, Robert Tonyan contributed to the loss by dropping a long pass that Fields absolutely feathered intro his hands. While Mooney may have changed…

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Larrylambert
Larrylambert

Written by Larrylambert

You probably don't know my name, but have likely seen my work. I've written for numerous syndicated cartoon strips and my gags have appeared in national pubs.

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