Wide receiver Brandon Lloyd excelled on both offense and special teams in Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Carolina Panthers, leading the Bears with five receptions for 66 yards and scoring the game’s first touchdown when he returned a blocked punt nine yards.
The TD was Lloyd’s first since he scored five in 2005 when he played for the San Francisco 49ers. It came two minutes into the game when Darrell McClover blocked Jason Baker’s punt high into the air. Lloyd caught the ball and dashed into the end zone untouched.
“I’ve had a couple easier ones than that, but I enjoyed that one probably the most just because I was playing on the special teams and I actually have a lot of fun doing that,”
Lloyd said.
“It’s something that I want to do because I feel like I can help the team and they feel like I can help the team on special teams, so it’s good to get that reward.”
While Lloyd probably could have walked into the end zone, he didn’t initially realize there were no Panthers players near him.
“I didn’t know I had a clear path,”
Lloyd said. “I didn’t know how fast the pursuit was going to be coming behind me, so I just wanted to snatch that thing and just get possession of it. I wasn’t hit, so I kind of scooted on into the end zone.”
Lloyd made two excellent catches, outleaping cornerback Ken Lucas down the left sideline to haul in a 32-yarder and later diving to grab a 14-yarder on third-and-two. He was ruled down on the play at the Carolina 1, though it appeared that he had rolled into the end zone before contact was made. Fullback Jason McKie’s 1-yard TD dive on the next play gave the Bears a 17-3 lead.
“I thought [cornerback Chris Gamble] was going to tag me and he didn’t,”
Lloyd said. “I tried to put the ball across [the goal line], but I really wasn’t worried because when I saw where I actually was, I knew we were going to be able to punch it in with our goal package, and we did.”
Block party: McClover’s blocked punt was the second of his career. He also blocked a punt last Dec. 23 in a 35-7 win over the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. A third blocked punt that resulted in a safety Aug. 16 in Seattle doesn’t count toward his total because it occurred in a preseason game.
“Each punter’s different and you’ve got to know the ‘block point’ and the angles you have to go at,”
McClover said. “If you get a good 'get-off' and get your angles right, you can make the play every time.”
Flag day: The Bears drew 12 penalties Sunday, their most since they were flagged 14 times last Sept. 30 in a 37-27 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. The Bears were assessed three penalties apiece for false starts on offense and illegal blocks in the back on special teams.
“We normally take care of business a little better when you talk about penalties that really hurt us like that,”
said coach Lovie Smith. “I can’t give you an excuse for it, but we can’t have it anymore.”
Long field: The penalties contributed to the Bears losing the field position battle Sunday. Chicago started seven of its 13 possessions inside its own 20 at the 11, 8, 9, 18, 18, 12 and 10.
“That’s tough,”
said running back Matt Forte. “Field position is the name of the game. It’s tough, but we’ve still got to make positive yards on first and second down.”
Still streaking: Marty Booker extended his Bears record of consecutive games with a reception to 60 when he hauled in a 4-yarder from Kyle Orton in the second quarter.
With the Bears leading 17-13 midway through the third quarter, Booker slipped past his man at the line of scrimmage and was open deep on third-and-seven from the Chicago 13. But Orton overshot the veteran receiver by two or three strides.
“It was pretty close,”
Booker said. “I got by him. Kyle laid it out there. It was just one of those where we couldn’t connect. I wish you could go back and do it all over again, but you can’t do that. After that we still had opportunities to move the ball down the field and at least get in field goal range to tie it up. But we didn’t do that.”
