Chicago Bear Offensive lineman Doug Kramer Jr. has now been spotlighted for two very bad and infamous plays in the 2024 season.
Leading Washington, trailing the Washington Commanders by five points midway through the fourth quarter, former coaches Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron called a goal-line handoff to Kramer, who would fumble the ball and return it to Washington , who would win. the game by three points on a Hail Mary touchdown.
Monday evening against the Minnesota Vikingswith the Bears leading 13-0, the team took the ball to the goal line and ran a familiar play. Kramer was brought in at fullback to pave the way for a D’Andre Swift touchdown, which was overturned because Kramer did not declare himself eligible.
Instead of the Bears getting a touchdown and bringing it to a one-score game, they were pushed back several plays after Kramer’s mistake and had to settle for three points on a field goal. Instead of scoring a touchdown on their first drive of the second half after once again failing to do anything in the first half, the Bears continued their embarrassing play. Given his two biggest mistakes this season, we got to the point late in the game where ESPN commentator Troy Aikman began noting, with a sound of relief in his voice, when the Bears would call a running game without Kramer on the field.
After the loss, Kramer was asked by reporters about the play in the locker room and he called it an unacceptable play on his part. Detailing what went wrong in the play, Kramer took responsibility for it, although interim head coach Thomas Brown attempted to take the blame during his speech at his press conference. postgame, saying he could have called a timeout and saved the game if he knew Kramer hadn’t shown up.
“Yeah, I forgot to report,” Kramer told reporters in the locker room after Monday night’s loss. “I ran onto the pitch, time was running out, I entered the group and directed the game. It was an unacceptable mistake. Obviously, I apologized to all my teammates, to all those who were on offense Things like that can’t happen, it’s 100% mine. [fault]. When they threw the flag, I knew it was 100% me. We did it [the play] all year, unfortunately it got away from me, I ran there and I didn’t make it. It’s hard.”
Indeed, it’s tough, but it’s also a telling moment in what has been a miserable, embarrassing and downright ugly display of professional misconduct at every level of the Bears football team. The loss to Minnesota was the eighth straight of the season, with three games remaining against the Detroit Lions, Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers.
This article was originally published on Bears Wire: Bears OL Doug Kramer responds to failure to report on TD run vs. Vikings
