NFL games are three minutes too long
The Bears kicked the Lions' asses for 57 minutes, which was not enough.



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Well, that was something, wasn’t it? The Bears played about as well as they possibly can for the first 57 minutes of their game in Detroit. The defense stuffed the potent Lions offense, they forced three interceptions and the special teams forced and recovered a fumble. Justin Fields returned from a month off with a dislocated thumb and he was used correctly and played extremely well. The Bears scored on four straight possessions in the second half and led by 12 points with three minutes to go.
And, they lost.
In the final 4:15 of the game, the Lions scored 17 points and gained 147 yards. In the 55:45 before that they had scored 14 points and gained just 191 yards.
When the Bears got the ball with 13:00 left in the game they had a nine point lead and needed to run some clock. And boy, did they.
They ran 14 plays, gained 70 yards and ate up 8:45 worth of game time. They converted a third and four, a third and one and third and 14.
With just under five minutes left in the game they had a fourth and one at the Lions 21 yard line. They were up by nine. They kicked a 39 yard field goal to go up by 12.
Why wouldn’t they go for it there? What’s the difference between being up by nine and being up by 12? It’s a two possession game either way, right?
Yeah, but those two possessions are not created equal.