Botched fake punt puts Bears' resiliency on display

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There was only one moment during the Bears' title-clinching win where a sense of panic fell over the 61,000 fans that were seated at Soldier Field. 

It was in the 3rd quarter, on 4th and 2, right after Benny Cunningham took the direct snap out of a punt formation (for his only carry of the day) and was stuffed for a one-yard loss. 

The botched fake punt set up Aaron Rodgers at midfield, and five plays later the Packers tied the game at 14. 

"Well, I mean, I told you at times we're going to be aggressive," Matt Nagy said. "We really haven't had that all year long, in those situations. And those are the ones where your'e going to come up here and crush me in a loss and that's okay, I understand that..." 

The decision -- and subsequent failure -- reminded everyone that for every Freezer Left and Santa's Sleigh, there's also the Give-Rodgers-The-Ball-At-The-50-In-A-One-Score-Game. In the end, the Bears will live and die with Nagy's style of play calling. 

"It's the same thing with the third and one or third and two with Tarik's fumble," he added. "That situation. That's what we're going to do. That's not going to change. I accept that, I understand it, and that's who we are."

When pressed for a specific explanation, Nagy chose to focus more on how the Bears responded. As shades of the Week 1 heartbreaker ran through the minds of everyone at Soldier Field, the Bears forced punts on the Packers' next two drives before taking the lead on a Mitch Trubisky touchdown pass to Trey Burton, and sealing that lead with an Eddie Jackson interception with four minutes left. 

"Here's what I'll say. I can't tell you how many times this they heard me say 'Finish' this week..." Nagy said.

"... so to me, deep down inside, I was saying to myself, 'you know what? We're really growing and we're becomming a pretty good team and we're learning.' We didn't give up, we didn't sulk, we didn't complain, we stepped up to the plate and we swung."

Taking big swings, whether it's with offensive personnel sets full of linemen or fake punts at midfield, is part of Nagy's allure as a head coach. It's also something that his players fiercely defend him for. 

"As soon as we hired him, I knew he was the right guy," Trubisky said. "And then just throughout the early process of sitting down with him, talking to him, getting to know him, he's got that vibe about him that everybody wants to be around him, everybody wants to play hard for him and really motivates his team. Obviously he's brilliant on offense but it's really special the way brings a group together, motivates them for a common goal and just it's really become a family and he's been a huge part of it."

"I knew what Coach Nagy was capable of," Allen Robinson added. "I was aware of everything."

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