As the Bears were trying to come from behind with 2:02 remaining in the fourth quarter of Monday night’s loss to the Vikings, they foolishly burned the two-minute warning on a kickoff by kicking the ball into the end zone, where the Vikings brought it out and ran more than two seconds off the clock. Coach Ben Johnson knows he screwed up.
Johnson said on Tuesday that he wished he had told his kicker to boot the ball to the sideline, rather than out the end zone.
“At the end of the game I felt like we could kick it out of the back. We weren’t able to get that done. In hindsight I should have kicked it out of bounds,” Johnson said.
The Bears’ defense forced a three-and-out after that kickoff, but it was too little, too late: By the time the Bears got the ball back, only nine seconds remained.
If the Bears had kicked out of bounds, they would have saved about 47 seconds and had the ball back with about 56 seconds left: The kickoff return took seven seconds off the clock, and not having the two-minute warning allowed the Vikings to take about another 40 seconds off the clock.
The only advantage to kicking the ball out of the end zone rather than out of bounds is five yards: A touchback is spotted on the 35-yard line, while a kickoff out of bounds is spotted on the 40 yard line. At that point in the game, five yards didn’t matter nearly as much as the precious time the Bears wasted.
Johnson knows now that he should have kicked out of bounds. If he had known that on Monday night, he might be 1-0 as a head coach, instead of 0-1.
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