DETROIT — For several seconds after the football dropped in front of Rome Odunze on Thursday at Ford Field, Chicago Bears players stood rooted to the turf in stunned disbelief.
The Bears were down by three at the Detroit Lions’ 41-yard line and had 32 seconds left in the game to try to move closer to set up kicker Cairo Santos for a tying field goal.
Somehow, with a timeout remaining, the Bears only ran one more play — rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ overthrow of Odunze near the 3-yard line. The clock ran out. The Bears lost 23-20, the fourth time during their six-game losing streak they lost in baffling fashion at the end of a game.
And everyone, from Williams and Odunze to Lions coach Dan Campbell to Bears coach Matt Eberflus to Bears executives in the back of the press box, seemed to pause in blank confusion.
“I seen the Detroit Lions walking on the field, I’m like, ‘Damn, (what) they doing? What’s going on?’ wide receiver Keenan Allen said. “I didn’t realize the time had ran out. … And then you look up and you realize we’ve got a timeout. And it’s like, ‘Ah…’”
“What the eff just happened?” tight end Cole Kmet asked himself.
“What the hell?” wide receiver DJ Moore said he wondered, before correcting himself. “Nah, it was like, what the bleep?”
Bears players still were sorting through details in a postgame locker room that teetered between angry and confounded. President Kevin Warren and chief administrative officer Ted Crews stood nearby, observing.
Allen and left guard Teven Jenkins didn’t realize the Bears still had a timeout remaining. DJ Moore — and Allen after he found out — were surprised the Bears didn’t use their timeout when Eberflus realized the clock was winding down on their final play.
Eberflus said in his postgame news conference that the Bears’ plan was for Williams to run a play to the middle of the field and then call a timeout to set up the field goal. But the Bears took too long to get set, and Williams said he changed the play to go to Odunze near the end zone because he realized they didn’t have time to go to the middle of the field and then run a second play.
“You want it to be (called) but at the same time it didn’t get called,” Moore said of the timeout. “Just got to go out there and execute.”
There were execution problems throughout the game, particularly on offense. There were problems in the first half when the Bears totaled 53 yards and two first downs and fell behind 16-0 at halftime. And there were plenty of problems on the Bears’ final drive before the last play.
Kmet was called for offensive pass interference on a fourth-and-4 play, though the Bears were able to overcome it on fourth-and-14 thanks to Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor’s own pass interference penalty.
Jenkins was called for illegal hands to the face — a 10-yard penalty — two plays later. And Lions defensive lineman Za’Darius Smith looped around backup right tackle Larry Borom to sack Williams for a 6-yard loss to give the Bears third-and-26 on their final play.
Then came the burning of the clock as Bears players tried to scramble back to the line — and the failed play to Odunze, who couldn’t get to the football in time.
“Caleb gave me a pump on it, but there was more than one high (safety), so it was tough coverage for the play,” Odunze said. “He threw it where the safety wasn’t going to be, and I tried to flip my head around, but I wasn’t able to make the play.”
Santos was also surprised at the way the final 30 seconds unfolded.
He said he felt great all day, having missed only one kick during his halftime practice. After two blocked field goals in the last two games, he felt the operation was going well, and he made both of his extra-point attempts.
But he never got a chance to get on the field at the end.
“I didn’t see that happening. We rehearse these scenarios, and I imagine myself kicking that,” Santos said. “I know we want to play for the win, but I imagined myself at least getting a shot there. But I don’t know what’s communicated between the offense and what led to those events.”
Moore called the ways the Bears have lost in the last month “once in a blue moon type things.” The Hail Mary against the Washington Commanders, the blocked field goal against the Green Bay Packers, the overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings and now the clock mismanagement that dropped the Bears record to 4-8 after starting 4-2.
“We’ve got to find a way to win,” Moore said. “We keep coming back in these games and be having time to actually win the game, and we just s−−− the bed.”
Several Bears players were careful to accept their parts in the end-of-game unraveling and not to point solely to Eberflus and the coaching staff for not stepping in as the clock wound down. But there were obviously still some questions about how the game ended the way it did.
Kmet said he imagined the Bears would scrutinize the end-of-game operation when they return to Halas Hall to prepare for a Dec. 8 road meeting against the San Francisco 49ers.
Until then, they’ll be chewing on how they let another one get away for much longer than they’ll chew on their Thanksgiving dinners.
“It was tough,” Allen said. “I feel like we did enough as players to win the game.”
