The Bears' Nightmarish Home Opener Included a Terrifying 3rd &40

It's probably for the best that everyone just pretend the Thursday night NFL season opener didn't actually occur.

The Chicago Bears certainly wouldn't object to this alternate timeline after managing just three points at home in front of a large group of surly fans.

Their complete inability to move the football was encapsulated by a particularly grim sequence early in the fourth quarter.

Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky had somehow managed to cross midfield, actually reaching the Packers' 43-yard line when some comical regression began.

 

Oh, but it gets so much better.

After OL Charles Leno committed two consecutive penalties to make it 1st & 30, Mitch found Taylor Gabriel downfield for a 50-yard gain.

Of course, this could've only occurred if Gabriel had pushed off, which he did.

Just to be clear, that makes it 1st & 40.

 

If this down-and-distance seems unusual to you, that's because it's impossibly rare.

 

 

Two incompletions later, and we were presented with the unmitigated horror of a 3rd & 40.

The Bears then completed a nine-yard pass, leaving them 31 yards shy of a conversion.

 

The Internet took great delight in piling on the offensively challenged Bears:

 

That's right Mitch, keep waving.

 

Yep, the NFL is a copycat league, after all.

 

It's definitely not what we would call manageable.

Fortunately for Chicago, they do have an extra three days to figure out how to score a touchdown before their next game.

 

A good place to start would be not making that throw.