The final drive of the Chicago Bears’ 10th consecutive loss really had it all, didn’t it?
Poor clock management. An untimely false start. Questionable timeout usage.
A fumbled snap. Coaching indecision. And the first interception from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams in 75 days.
That all came amid a distressing soundtrack from angry fans inside Soldier Field chanting during their team’s potential game-tying or game-winning possession in the final minutes.
Sell the team! Sell the team! Sell the team!
It was a day or two late for making last-minute Christmas requests, of course. And all that frustration did nothing to change Thursday night’s final result, a 6-3 loss to the very ordinary Seattle Seahawks in a game that ended with just a little more confusion and dismay.
It marked just the third time in the Super Bowl era that the Bears allowed six points or fewer in a game but lost. These Bears also tied the franchise record for consecutive losses inside of a season, an abysmal mark of 10 that was set only two short seasons ago. (Save the date for the possible record-breaking performance in Green Bay in Week 18.)
But back to Thursday night’s final possession. Because oh, how fitting that sloppiness was to punctuate one of the uglier games in recent memory — all for the Amazon Prime “Thursday Night Football” audience. Trailing by just three points, the Bears got the ball back at their 11-yard line with 5 minutes, 12 seconds remaining and all three timeouts still in their pocket. Somehow — and stunningly so — they again ran short on time.
Ultimately, Williams finished the game with four consecutive misfires, including a turnover on his final pass with 11 seconds left. With the Seahawks sending an all-out blitz, Williams backpedaled and tried to escape pressure from safeties Coby Bryant and Julian Love. His answer against that kind of heat, he said, was to target DJ Moore running deep against Devon Witherspoon.
“Knowing they were bringing the house,” Williams said, “we put as many guys as we could in to block. And they just had one more guy (rushing) to the back (side). I tried to fade away and throw it to DJ on a runway. He’s one of our fastest guys. And I missed.”
Alas, Williams was hit by Bryant as he threw. His pass lost its mustard and fluttered to Seahawks defensive back Riq Woolen. Game over.
That pick — Williams’ first in 354 attempts — came after three straight incompletions, too, all from the Seahawks 40-yard line with the Bears just a few yards outside Cairo Santos’ field-goal range. Interim coach Thomas Brown said his targeted kick line was somewhere between the 34 and 37. Yet rather than calling a running play or seeking a short completion to sneak inside Santos’ range, Williams threw the ball away on first down, underthrew a deep shot to Rome Odunze down the right sideline on second down and fired a wild pitch over the middle to no one in particular on third down.
So, uh … yeah.
“We have to be able to execute,” Brown said.
Santos was readying for a possible game-tying kick if called upon.
“I’m ready for whatever decision they make,” he said. “I think there’s adrenaline at the end of a game, too, that can help.”
His chance never came.
Incredibly, the two timeouts the Bears used on their final possession weren’t taken to stop the clock. The first came with 2:14 remaining after a Jake Curhan false start prevented the Bears from attempting a fourth-and-inches play. Brown initially sent Tory Taylor and the punting unit onto the field and felt good about it. He knew his defense had played well all night and that he had all his timeouts left plus the two-minute warning to stop the clock.
“I wanted to use Tory as a weapon,” Brown said. “That was possibly a chance to flip the field and force a three-and-out and get a shorter field. That was my thought process.”
But then?
“I changed my mind,” Brown said. “I wanted to be more aggressive.”
His change of heart came just before Taylor took a snap for a punt that he boomed down inside the 10-yard line. Instead, a timeout was used and the offense retook the stage.
Despite all the chaos, Williams beat an all-out blitz with a heroic 14-yard completion to Moore on the ensuing fourth-down play. And three snaps later, he converted third-and-14 with an on-the-move 15-yard dart to Rome Odunze.
Odunze made that catch with 1:05 left. Yet the Bears, with two timeouts left, didn’t get their next snap off until 37 seconds remained. Precious time was just ticking away.
“I got hit in the throat,” Williams said. “And, yeah. I got hit in the throat. So. Yeah.”
A moment later, in response to a separate question, the quarterback elaborated on that sequence.
“I don’t know if the coaches saw me,” he said. “Even though I got hit in the throat. And the face. I’ve just got to get up and run down and snap the ball. So. Yeah.”
Brown’s explanation for letting that action unfold with the clock running down was straightforward.
“I was saving (the timeout) for the gotta-have-it scenario,” he said.
After that aforementioned first-down throwaway, the Bears used their second timeout when a clunky operation put them in jeopardy of incurring a delay-of-game penalty. Go figure.
Indeed, that entire sequence leading up to the interception that sealed loss No. 12 this season was downright clunky. Disorganized. Undeniably chaotic.
“It was chaotic the whole game,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “I thought that was just on par for what was going on throughout the whole game. So …”
That’s just the way this season has gone.
“It’s hurtful,” Moore added. “We can’t take this momentum into next year. We’ve got to change something.”
Thursday night’s offensive output was particularly abysmal. The Bears’ 179 total yards marked the fourth time this season they have been held below 200.
Williams’ season sack total ticked up and up and up — from 60 when the night began to 67 on the final drive. And his bloated sack yardage Thursday (46) offered several examples of a young quarterback still not understanding how to minimize the damage or get rid of the ball more quickly in certain situations.
“I’ll definitely take the heat for this one,” Williams said, “just because of some of the situations I put us in.”
The Bears squeezed only one field goal out of 10 possessions Thursday. Over the last five games, they have averaged only 13 points.
Now Thursday night’s performance can slide right into the exhibit that comprises all the failure and misery of the past 61 days, of the 10 maddening losses that have all carried unique levels of ineptitude and agitation.
Toward the very end of Thursday’s loss, the Amazon Prime cameras caught three Bears fans in the stands with brown paper bags over their heads, complete with marker-drawn frowns and three messages of despair.
“I’m Tired” stood next to “Why am I here?” who was beside “Make It Stop.”
The man in the middle, appropriately, shot two middle two fingers into the air.
Fitting, right?
A little while later, during his postgame news conference, the 23-year-old Williams was asked how he processes all the angst and despair from his new fan base.
“This is my first year,” he said. “Their frustrations go way further back than I’ve been here.”
He ain’t kidding.
“My job is to go out and win games,” Williams continued. “And we don’t focus on the outside noise. Fans are going to cheer and maybe boo some times. You can’t react to that. It’s not something we react to. We have a job to do. And sometimes you don’t do so well on the job some days.”
Thursday was one of those days, particularly for the offense.
One of those games inside another one of those seasons.
The chaotic finish only compounded the aggravation.
The Bears’ final stop this season will be in Green Bay, where the playoff-bound Packers await. Renewed chants of “Bears still suck!” are likely to echo around Lambeau Field. Just like they always do. And the odds remain strong that the Bears will offer additional supporting evidence to that assertion.
The way this season has spiraled? One can only imagine what finishing touch might be left.
