Backyard Football by Damiere Byrd Pays Off

On the grand scale of last-minute football drama, it wasn't quite "the catch" or "the drive" or even "the fumble."

For this Bears season of misery and probable coaching change, it will have to pass for it.

Damiere Byrd hauled in a two-point pass from Nick Foles on an ad-lib play when Matt Nagy gambled and went for the win, one play after Jimmy Graham paid back his old team with the touchdown catch to set up the 25-24 Bears win.

"Well, obviously Nick is a more seasoned vet," Bears running back David Montgomery said. "Super Bowl MVP. So he knows how to kind of, put (us) in those situations, he's been in them plenty of times and he knows how to maneuver through them and he knows how to be sure that we all stay poised. And that's what Nick did."

Byrd was poised enough to make an in-play adjustment when Seattle played zone and passed him off in coverage as Foles rolled right on the game-winning two-point play.

"It's called QH Swivel," Foles said. "They played it very well, very well. They actually played it perfectly, and the reason it worked was Byrd played backyard football and knew that they covered it well. And if he wouldn't have done his thing and just stopped and came back we don't win this game.

"So I was really happy that he played some backyard football and we ad-libbed right there."

Byrd had been moving right, stopped, went back left a bit and then got it at the back of the end zone in a crowd of Seahawks who tried carrying him out of bounds. Byrd managed to prevent this and also keep the ball away from defenders by holding it out with one hand away from them while getting to the turf.

"I mean, I was waiting for him," Byrd said of Foles. "I think I was talking to myself at least for a couple of seconds. We locked eyes and he ended up throwing it and I just knew I had to go up and get it."

After Byrd made the catch, something the Bears receiver often said struck Montgomery.

"Byrd always says this one saying: 'Fear doesn't live here.' And when he caught it, I wasn't surprised," Montgomery said. "It was the first thing that came in my head was fear doesn't live here."

Byrd saw it as a payoff for the team refusing to quit over the last few months despite dropping eight out of nine coming into the game. 

"I think even these past couple of games we didn't come out victorious, but you could see the fight that everybody has had," Byrd said. "Obviously we would love to win more games. But to be able to come out there on a day like this—not ideal weather conditions (snow)—and obviously in a hostile environment in Seattle, to be able to come out here and fight the way we did—being down a possession late in the game and then being able to have that late drive, you could kind of see the core nucleus of this team."

Byrd viewed the result as potential realized, while those who have seen too much of the opposite result might call it being fortunate for a change.

"When we are doing the right things and being able to keep the penalties out, you could see what kind of offense and even defense that we can play," Byrd said.