Paul Edinger was neither kicking nor screaming.
But he said he was ready to try a wind-aided 55-yard field goal when the Bears trailed 6-0 in the third period Sunday night.
Instead, Bears coaches had Brad Maynard attempt a pooch punt from the Tampa Bay 38-yard line. Maynard’s punt rolled into the end zone for a touchback.
“I was trying them from 58 yards in warmups, and I had a few more yards on it,” Edinger said of his attempts at the north end of Memorial Stadium, where the wind was gusting at about 15 m.p.h.
But Bears coach Dick Jauron never asked Edinger if he believed a long field-goal attempt was within his range.
“No, he just said for [Maynard] to punt,” Edinger said. “If we were going to kick a field goal, I was ready. I’m always there if we’ve got to kick it.”
The Bears had advanced to the Bucs’ 38 on three rushes by rookie Adrian Peterson for 21 yards and an 8-yard pass from Henry Burris to Daimon Shelton.
“We couldn’t get anything going on offense in the first half,” Jauron said. “We just needed to get a break somewhere. We needed to get a turnover.”
Tampa Bay got five field goals from Martin Gramatica to account for all the game’s scoring. Gramatica finished the regular season 32-of-39 on field goals.
Edinger wound up matching former Bears kicker Kevin Butler for most 50-yard-plus field goals in a season. Each was 5-for-8 from beyond 50 yards.
The Bears managed just 218 total yards. Tampa Bay dominated time of possession–37 minutes 29 seconds to 22:31.
For a team that ranked at or near the bottom in significant offensive statistical categories, the Bears relied heavily on Edinger as their most dependable offensive weapon this season. He made 22-of-28 field-goal attempts and all 29 of his extra-point tries to lead the team in scoring with 95 points. The third-year pro from Michigan State also matched Gramatica with a league-high five field goals of 50 yards or more.
But Sunday night he didn’t get a chance–no field-goal attempts and, of course, no extra-point tries.
“For the most part we kept ourselves in the game,” Jauron said. “Our goal was to keep it close going into the fourth quarter.”
