The Chicago Bears may be rolling with Eddy Pineiro as their new kicker, but they don’t exactly have tons of confidence in him. That was made clear by a strategy decision in the third quarter of Thursday night’s game against the Green Bay Packers.
The Bears were down 7-3 and had a 3rd-and-5 at the Green Bay 28 with under five minutes left in the third. They took a delay of game penalty to move them back five yards to the 33 and threw an incompletion. That brought up 4th-and-10 from the 33. Rather than attempt a 50-ish yard field goal, Chicago opted to go for it. Under pressure, Mitchell Trubisky scrambled but only picked up three yards as Chicago turned the ball over on downs.
The chances of making a 50-yard field goal are generally higher than a team converting a 4th-and-10, making the kick the optimal choice in that situation. Nagy obviously did not feel too confident in Pineiro, otherwise it would not have been a tough decision.
Nagy made a spectacle of the Bears’ kicking search during the offseason after last year’s woes. Passing up expected tries like that one will only perpetuate the idea that the Bears still haven’t settled matters.
Pineiro did make a 38-yard field goal in the first quarter to give the Bears their first points of the game.
