The improvement in special teams play over the latter half of the season restored some respectability to units that were disaster areas at the start of the year. Marc Mariani’s 47-yard return of a Lions kickoff midway through the fourth quarter was the fourth of 30 yards or more from December on. Mariani also broke a 19-yard punt return that would have given the offense the football near midfield after a key defensive stop in the first quarter.
But the latter was nullified on a facemask penalty on Sherrick McManis, somehow a fitting finish to a bad year that has seen the Bears give up a punt return and two kickoff returns for touchdowns and finish in the bottom third of the NFL in their own kickoff and punt returns.