Chase Daniel wasn't terrible in Sunday's loss to the Oakland Raiders. He finished the game completing 22-of-30 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns, but it's his two interceptions that will garner the most attention.
Rightfully so.
Trailing 24-21 with just over one minute remaining in the fourth quarter, Daniel tossed a floater into the arms of Oakland CB Gareon Conley at the Raiders' 26-yard line. It was his second interception of the game and was the result of a terrible throw at a critical moment.
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Game over, Bears lose.
"Yeah, that's one we want back," Daniel said of the throw after the game. "That's one of our stable plays. We made a check and at the end they made a better play. The whole game they were pretty tight on our outside receivers, and I'm not even sure who intercepted, but the corner who really, I thought was supposed to have Javon Wims really fell off. I saw the nickel falling off, Anthony took it a little lower than what I wanted, but that's just completely on me. Like I just -- there's two throws I want back, right, the first interception gave them a short field and obviously that one. I feel like that's one that I should probably check down."
Who knows what might have been had Daniel taken a more conservative approach on that play. Maybe the offense would've forced overtime. Maybe Chicago still would've lost. But it's head-scratching plays like that interception that have Bears fans so frustrated through the first five games.
Daniel knows he needs to be better.
NFL
"I'm the hardest guy on myself," Daniel said. "I didn't play well enough today. Backup, regardless, London, it really doesn't matter. It really doesn't. I expect more of myself, and we'll watch the film, we'll try to move on, and win some more games."
Chicago enters its bye with a 3-2 record and some significant injuries. Akiem Hicks left Sunday's game with what looked like a serious elbow injury and we still don't know exactly when Mitch Trubisky will return.
The Bears need this bye week. Badly. They need it to get healthy and they need it to fix the pedestrian offense. Most of all, they need to figure out what kind of team they want to be in the second half of their season. The defense wasn't a Super Bowl unit Sunday, while the offense was its usual self. The end result was a club that couldn't beat the Raiders, and with all due respect to Oakland, that doesn't bode well for Chicago's championship hopes in 2019.