The end of the game was such a comedy of both teams trying so hard to lose! First Denver marches the ball all the way down the field only to throw a pick inside the 5 yard lines... then Chicago can't get a first down to run the game out and punts it back to Denver with a little over 2 minutes left. Then Denver converts multiple 4th downs and puts together a scoring drive! The TD started one of my favorite end of game sequences ever! It was like Calvinball!
1. Denver can't decide whether to go for 1 or 2, eventually deciding to go for the win. The Bears also look frazzled, and aren't really aligned properly... but Denver takes too long and gets a delay of game penalty.
2. With the delay penalty, Denver opts for a PAT... AND MISSES! but WAIT! CHICAGO IS OFFSIDE!
3. After the offside penalty we now return to the original spot and Denver still seems confused about whether to go for 1 or 2! Finally the decide to go for 2 and convert it!
4. Denver kicks off and the bears only have 1 timeout and 30 seconds left. Denver picks up a roughing the passer penalty. This was admittedly a soft penalty, but the refs were calling soft personal fouls against Chicago all game, so... fair is fair? Two of the calls against the bears were so bad. They called one on the bears earlier when the DE hit Flacco AS HE WAS THROWING, disrupting the throw, and made a perfect form tackle. Chicago also picked up the first roughing the TE penalty I've ever seen on a normal tackle where the player pulled the TE onto hisself! Still, a tough time for a personal foul... which allows the bears to move within striking distance!
5. With 9 seconds left, MITCH makes an awesome play to step up into the pocket and keep the play alive, allowing a bears defender to be ALL ALONE 30 YARDS DOWNFIELD. It was like the entire Broncos defense evaporated and there was this dude standing there all alone in field goal range! Maybe Denver thought they were trying for a hail mary? I don't honestly know how this guy was so open... but he was!
6. The receiver makes an amazing catch and an even more amazing heads up play to fall down instantly. MITCH has his hand on the TO buzzer like a fucking Jeopardy winner and locks it up with 1 second left.
7. The bears kicker makes a 50+ yard field goal like it aint no thang.
It was like the inverse of the Tebow game against the Bears where Chicago had it all wrapped up and then Cedric Benson or whoever their RB was inexplicably ran out of bounds stopping the clock, which gave TEBOW about that same amount of time left.
Also, the Bears should have had a 99 yard pick 6 on that interception anyway, but the stupid zebras blew the play dead because it looked like the CB was about to go out or get tackled... I watched the replay like 6 times doe and he never stepped out and his knee hovered like magic above the ground without touching. Ball don't lie.