With 1:56 remaining in the fourth quarter on Thursday night, the Bears faced third-and-inches, and Patriots defensive lineman Cory Durden jumped offside. The fans in Chicago cheered, thinking New England had just made a big mistake. Actually, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel had just called a smart play.
Vrabel told Durden to jump offside intentionally because he figured the Patriots were unlikely to stop the Bears from picking up a first down when they only had inches to go anyway, and he’d rather concede the first down without running any time off the clock and then use his timeouts on the next set of downs.
It proved to be smart: The Patriots’ defense stopped the Bears on the next three plays, the Patriots used their three timeouts, and the Bears kicked with 1:39 remaining. Unfortunately for the Patriots, Bears kicker Cairo Santos kicked a career-long 58-yard field goal that put the game effectively out of reach. But if Santos had missed, the Patriots would have had a real chance at a game-winning touchdown, and they would have had an additional 40 seconds to do it because of Vrabel’s smart clock management.
Vrabel confirmed after the game what he had done, not wanting Durden to get blamed for the penalty.
“For the record, we told Cory to jump offsides on third-and-six inches,” Vrabel said. “We felt like that was going to be the best way to get them stopped, and that’s on me, so our guys executed. And Cairo made a huge kick.”
Kirk Herbstreit, the commentator on the Prime Video broadcast of the game, correctly noted that, for the Patriots, it was better to give the Bears first-and-10 than third-and-inches in that situation.
“The fact that it’s third-and-inches instead of first-and-10, actually with the clock, hurts New England,” Herbstreit said after Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had been spotted just short of the first down on the previous play.
When Durden jumped offside, some thought it was a bonehead penalty, but Herbstreit knew what was happening.
“This guy did this on purpose,” Herbstreit said. “Going back to the clock, we just said, if they get the first down you have to waste a timeout on the third-down conversion. Now they get the first down. Vrabel, the way he operates, that’s something they would do.”
Vrabel has made similar calls before. In fact, during the 2020 offseason, the NFL changed its rules to stop the clock after offensive penalties late in the fourth quarter because of the way Vrabel, then the coach of the Titans, had run the clock by intentionally committing penalties in a playoff win over the Patriots.
On Thursday night, Bears coach Ben Johnson should have declined the Patriots’ offside penalty to keep it third-and-inches. But Johnson apparently hadn’t thought through the consequences of accepting the penalty and the first down that came with it.
In the end, the Bears won despite Vrabel’s tactic. But it was another example of how Vrabel is among the best coaches in the league at managing the clock late in the game.