One game remains. Just one more game.
In the middle of a franchise record-tying 10-game losing streak, the Chicago Bears have one last game on the itinerary, a Week 18 visit to Lambeau Field to take on the rival Green Bay Packers. Winless since Oct. 13 and in last place in the NFC North by a country mile, the Bears may not have enough left in their fuel tank to pull off an upset in Sunday’s season finale. One final defeat would leave the team with a 4-13 record plus a 12-game losing streak against the Packers.
So what now? And what is ahead for the Bears beyond Sunday’s game?
As the final week of the regular season progresses, Tribune reporters Dan Wiederer and Colleen Kane sort through four key Bears topics in true-or-false format.
True or false: With the right head coaching hire, the Bears should expect to be back in the playoffs in 2025.
Colleen Kane: False. Watching the hope and hype surrounding the Bears this summer turn into a four-win season with a 10-game losing streak is a lesson that the playoffs shouldn’t be expected when it comes to the Bears. Not yet at least.
The “right head coaching hire” would certainly go a long way to helping the Bears take a step toward the postseason. To me, that would mean that the Bears put someone in place who can help quarterback Caleb Williams move forward with his development and who can instill a culture of accountability that apparently slipped during the end of the Matt Eberflus era.
But there are still roster issues the Bears must fix. They have to get better on the offensive and defensive lines for this to be a playoff-quality team. That means making the correct decisions regarding multiple key players on those units.
There’s also the little problem of the NFC North — and how good all the other teams have become. I don’t think the Bears can expect anything when they have to play the Lions, Vikings and Packers twice a year. It’s a steep climb to the top.
Dan Wiederer: Steep and getting steeper. When the Bears begin cleaning out the locker room Monday morning, the Lions, Vikings and Packers will all be preparing for playoff football and doing so with a realistic eye on making a deep run.
The Lions and Vikings will play a winner-takes-all game Sunday night for the NFC North championship and the top seed/home-field advantage for the NFC playoffs. That’s an admirable place to be in. And it illuminates just how far away these Bears truly are from that tier of the NFL’s hierarchy. You know, the tier that plays impact games in January.
A loss Sunday in Green Bay would leave the Bears eight games out of third place in their division. And given the stability and momentum all three of their NFC North rivals have with their head coaching situations, it only heightens the pressure for the Bears to make a really good hire in the coming weeks.
But, as you said Colleen, let’s not get this twisted. While last-place teams always have an opening to make a major breakthrough the following season — the Bears themselves improved from five wins to 12 in 2018 in the first season under Matt Nagy — it’s more likely that a climb as steep as this one will take time. And effort. And great care.
With the right hire, can the Bears and their fans dream about a playoff resurgence? Sure. Should it be expected? Heck no!
True or false: Next weekend’s trip to Lambeau Field will expose the Bears to further humiliation as the regular season ends.
Wiederer: True. On the verge of setting a new team record for futility with 11 consecutive losses within a single season, the Bears will head to Green Bay as 4-point underdogs against a Packers team that they haven’t beaten since 2018.
We know exactly what’s coming here. We just do. The Bears will be outclassed in another rough loss. Packers fans will stampede out of Lambeau Field with a full-hearted chorus of “Bears still suck!” chants. The visiting locker room will be quieter and more depressing than a funeral home.
How many times have we had to witness that scene, including last season when the Bears were on an encouraging late-season climb and felt like they were marching into Week 18 primed for a statement victory that would have kept the Packers out of the playoffs. Instead? The Bears didn’t score a touchdown and were outgained 432-192 yards in a sobering loss that should have been viewed inside Halas Hall as indicative of the team’s actual progress.
So, yeah. This weekend’s trip up north is muscle memory for us in too many ways.
Kane: Given the Bears’ struggles on the road this season and their offensive performance Thursday against a mediocre Seattle Seahawks team, it’s not looking good.
You’d like to believe Bears players will be playing for pride, that the idea of setting a new single-season franchise record for losses will light a fire under them. I can’t be sure that it will — or that it will help if it does.
At least the defense showed a little fight Thursday night in holding the Seahawks to six points. But the Packers are not the Seahawks. And there’s potential for this one to get ugly.
And here we were in May during the NFL schedule release wondering if Week 18 at Lambeau Field would be a time for Caleb Williams to shine with playoff implications on the line.
This trip will be new for Williams, but as you said, it will be déjà vu in too many ways for too many Bears observers.
True or false: Caleb Williams bears a certain level of responsibility for his NFL-high sack total of 67.
Kane: True. And to Williams’ credit, he has taken responsibility for some of the issues, including Thursday against the Seahawks when he took seven sacks for 46 yards lost. He took five in the second half as the Bears tried to worm their way out of the 6-3 hole. That included losses of 10, 14 and 8 yards.
“There were miscues. There were stupid sacks I was taking, losing 10, 14 yards, which was frustrating,” Williams said. “But I will definitely take the heat for this one, just because of some situations that I put us in.”
The sacks are certainly not all on Williams. The revolving door on the offensive line as the Bears deal with injury and competency issues hasn’t helped. Interim coach Thomas Brown has made sure to put the onus on himself to come up with better plays to help Williams avoid them.
Tracking Caleb Williams: How the Chicago Bears QB is performing in his rookie season
But there have been too many times when Williams hasn’t been quick enough to make the throws that are there. Williams said earlier this month that it’s about finding the “quick switch” in identifying the right play to make at the right moment.
It remains an issue. And while Williams has shown commendable physical and mental resilience given all of the hits he has taken this season, it remains a concern for his health and development.
Wiederer: This is a production-based business. And for those, like Williams, who hold the QB1 role, there is always significant responsibility to shoulder as it relates to the success or failure of the offense and the team at large. As it stands now, the Bears are 4-12 with an offense averaging 13 points per game over their past five losses.
Williams’ production has been inconsistent and stagnant far too often during the 10-game losing streak. Yes, the Bears’ protection has been unreliable. And given the turbulence within the coaching ranks, it’s been a tough ask of a rookie quarterback to be a stabilizing force for a staggering team.
But specifically with that astounding sack number, Williams himself has had issues either holding onto the ball too long or not reacting properly in the face of pressure or to what he’s seeing before and after the snap.
Thursday’s loss was the first time this season that it felt like the Bears’ leaky line had made Williams notably jumpy. By extension, the quarterback seemed to be dropping his eyes more frequently and playing without the poise and command necessary to produce at a high level. The results: 76 net passing yards and three points over 10 possessions.
Thursday also marked the fourth time in 16 games that Williams had been sacked at least seven times. Through a critical lens, the rookie quarterback had at least partial responsibility for four of those sacks.
Interim coach Thomas Brown labeled it as “shared accountability” when it comes to the sack total and emphasized that he again talked to Williams on Monday “about how to improve with the understanding of the rhythm and timing in the passing game.
“(It’s about) how to have more accountability from a pre-snap standpoint — diagnosing potential issues, pressures — and also being able to anticipate some stuff from a post-snap standpoint,” Brown continued. “We have to do a better job of protecting him as well at times. But it’s also him being able to understand how to get through the progression a little bit quicker.”
True or false: Kevin Warren must conduct a thorough performance review of general manager Ryan Poles before the Bears set a direction for their coaching search.
Wiederer: True. And to avoid that responsibility would be a major mistake at a critical time for the organization.
Warren was direct earlier this month with his backing of Poles as the Bears GM and emphasized that he expected Poles to be the point person of the coaching search. But that was before the team’s losing streak ticked upward from 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 to 10 with another four-pack of dispiriting performances. That was before the offensive production lagged with only five touchdowns and an average of 252 yards per game in the four losses since Matt Eberflus was fired. That was before the Bears started casting preliminary lines to see who might be interested in their head coaching vacancy and what reservations certain candidates might have in coming to Chicago.
So, yeah. Warren’s job as the chief overseer of the football operations is to sort through all of that, to put dozens of slides under a high-powered microscope and determine what he is seeing.
Poles’ performance review — whether it results in changes in job status or not — must be exhaustive. Comprehensive. No difficult discussion can be ignored.
Warren must get to the very bottom of why this season became an absolute oil spill. He must look at Poles’ 14-36 record over three seasons and ask difficult questions about the leadership failures that led the Bears here. He must go transaction by transaction over three years of work and grade Poles’ work in the draft, in free agency, with trades and contract extensions, and coaching moves. And he must evaluate Poles’ competence in managing the countless crises that have occurred under his watch.
This is not a time for the patented Halas Hall shrug, the “Oh well, we’ll work to do better going forward” apology. It’s a time to ask hard questions and stimulate difficult conversations. That’s paramount if the Bears are truly serious about setting themselves up for success with this next head coaching hire.
Kane: I think most everyone on the outside would agree that just because Warren backed Poles in early December doesn’t mean he shouldn’t do a thorough examination of Poles’ tenure as GM as the Bears plot their course forward.
You mentioned the reservations some coaches might have in coming to Chicago, and that’s real. Any coach who wants to lead the Bears will have the same questions about all the issues you mentioned. That’s not only whether Poles is in danger of losing his job next year if he stays. That’s questioning whether Poles and his staff are making the correct personnel decisions to equip the Bears for future success.
Poles has brought some good players to Chicago. But he has made some real missteps too — via trade, free agency and the draft. There are also the questionable decisions on coaches, both in keeping Matt Eberflus for this season and in allowing Eberflus to hire offensive coordinator Shane Waldron last winter.
Hopefully, we will have answers from Warren soon about the direction the Bears are headed and why.
