It looked like the Giants had a win in their pocket with just under two minutes to play on Sunday, but they’d have to wait a lot longer to celebrate.
The Bears rallied for a quick field goal, recovered an onside kick and then got a touchdown pass from running back Tarik Cohen to wide receiver Anthony Miller on the last play of regulation. An extra point forced overtime and gave the Bears a chance to extend their winning streak to six games.
They couldn’t make it happen, however. The Giants drove for a field goal to open the extra session and a fourth-down pass to Allen Robinson fell incomplete to finally give the home side a 30-27 win.
Odell Beckham appeared to have a chance to grab the fateful onside kick, but didn’t fully extend his arms to get the ball. That marred an otherwise good day for the wideout as he threw a touchdown pass and then caught one as the Giants moved into the lead in the third quarter.
The touchdown passes by Beckham and Cohen were joined by a touchdown run by Bears defensive tackle Akiem Hicks as both sides found ways to score while their quarterbacks were having shaky games. Chase Daniel’s first pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown and he was picked again in the first half to kill a drive in Giants territory.
It was a good thing the Giants got that touchdown by linebacker Alec Ogletree, because the Giants offense was ineffective for most of the first half. The biggest exception was a 22-yard run by Saquon Barkley late in the second quarter that helped the team to a field goal at the whistle. Bears head coach made that possible by calling a timeout after back-to-back sacks of Eli Manning, but let several seconds tick off the clock in the interim so the Bears wouldn’t have had much time to try for anything after a punt.
Barkley continued to run well in the second half and Beckham’s touchdowns in the third quarter changed the tenor of the game. He threw a 49-yard pass to Russell Shepard for his second touchdown pass of the year and then caught a one-yard pass for a score on fourth down when Eli Manning was able to get the ball away in the face of a heavy Bears blitz.
The Bears would sack Manning three times, but gave up that big Barkley play in the second quarter and struggled getting off the field in the second half of the game. They weren’t getting much help from the offense as the Bears ran for just five yards in the second half after putting up 106 before the break. Late heroics aside, Daniel didn’t play nearly as well as he did on Thanksgiving, so the Bears will likely be looking forward to getting Mitchell Trubisky back as they try to nail down the NFC North.
That effort will start with a game against the Rams next week, so they’ll need to get back on their feet right away.