The improvement in special teams play over the latter half of the season restored some respectability to units that were disaster areas at the start of the year. Marc Mariani’s 47-yard return of a Lions kickoff midway through the fourth quarter was the fourth of 30 yards or more from December on. Mariani also broke a 19-yard punt return that would have given the offense the football near midfield after a key defensive stop in the first quarter.
But the latter was nullified on a facemask penalty on Sherrick McManis, somehow a fitting finish to a bad year that has seen the Bears give up a punt return and two kickoff returns for touchdowns and finish in the bottom third of the NFL in their own kickoff and punt returns. The Bears ranked 32nd in starting field position allowed on kickoff returns going into the Detroit game.
Robbie Gould continued to put distance between now and his misses against San Francisco and Washington to convert from 49 yards in the third quarter to start Bears scoring against Detroit, and he finished it with another from 34 yards.
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Gould’s season was a case of an elite kicker with hiccups of bad – 17 straight makes to start the season, three straight misses, nine straight conversions, three straight misses, and a final stretch of seven conversions, three of those from 49 yards or longer.
But two of his misses came with games hanging in the balance, missing from 36 yards as time expired in the San Francisco game, and from 50 with a chance to tie Washington the next week.
Pat O’Donnell had one punt blocked due to a protection catastrophe but averaged nearly 40 yards net and combined with his coverage unit to place 28 of 70 punts inside opponents’ 20-yard lines.
NFL
Moon's ST Grade: D