Bears Vs. Dolphins: Jay Cutler Gets Away With Intentional Grounding In The End Zone

On the second play of the Bears’ first offensive possession, Jay Cutler dropped back to pass, backpedaled into his own end zone and flipped the ball out to his left in the flat.

The problem with that, of course, was that Cutler was still in the pocket and there was no receiver anywhere close to where his pass landed. Tight end Greg Olsen was listed as the intended receiver, but as you can see from the above photo, he’s not even in the frame when the ball lands near the line of scrimmage.

If the play were ruled intentional grounding, as it should have been, the Bears would have been charged with a safety and would have had to kick the ball away to the Dolphins. Chicago’s drive ended anyway on the next play, but the Bears were very fortunate not to have given the Dolphins the first lead of the game with this play.