Ihmir Smith-Marsette on illegal block: ‘He flopped'

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After a miserable first 28 minutes of the game, the Bears finally found some life with their final drive before halftime. Justin Fields hit a big pass to Darnell Mooney. David Montgomery found the endzone a few plays later. A Vikings missed field goal on their ensuing two-minute drill put the Bears back only 11 points at the break, despite being completely dominated on both sides of the ball. They started the third quarter, clearly reinvigorated, and scored another touchdown. Big plays on defense gave the Bears a previously inconceivable chance to pull ahead in the fourth quarter.

Then Justin Fields provided the biggest play of the game.

On a 2nd-and-11 play near midfield, Fields dropped back then took off running on what appeared to be a designed keeper. Outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith was the one man Fields needed to beat to the edge, and Fields smoked him. From there it wasn’t a matter of whether or not Fields could get loose for a big play, it was a matter of how big the play was going to be. Fields got a block from Ihmir Smith-Marsette, made a quick cut inside, then juked safety Camryn Bynum out of his shoes around the Vikings 30-yard line. He scored with no one remotely near him. Bears finally took the lead, 25-21.

The celebration was short-lived however. The block from Smith-Marsette was deemed illegal by officials and the play was called back.

After the game, Smith-Marsette made it clear he had a different view of the play.

“He flopped,” Smith-Marsette told NBC Sports Chicago.

FOX broadcasters agreed with Smith-Marsette in the moment, and said cornerback Cameron Dantzler did well to sell the play to draw the flag. Ultimately, however, they said Smith-Marsette needed to do a better job of keeping his hands off Dantzler at that moment. The Bears ended up settling for a field goal, going up 22-21 instead of 25-21 or more. On the following drive the Vikings scored a touchdown, so the play may not have made a difference. But there’s a chance that the touchdown would’ve changed the complexion of the game enough that the Vikings would’ve done different things with their ensuing possession.

Of course Smith-Marsette had a chance to change the outcome of the game, again, with his reception on the final Bears drive. He could’ve gone out of bounds after a big catch to stop the clock and keep the Bears marching on a potential game-tying drive of their own. Instead he fought for more yards, and Dantzler got the best of him again, this time by ripping the ball out of his hands for a fumble. In all, it was a fourth-quarter that Smith-Marsette would like to have back.

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