DETROIT — With the nation watching on Thanksgiving Day, it had to be dramatic.
Nothing else would suffice for this 2024 Chicago Bears team. For a group that has found numerous dramatic ways to lose a game, running out the clock on itself was a new one.
The Bears let a precious 32 seconds tick away – while still holding onto one final timeout – before quarterback Caleb Williams launched a deep pass for Rome Odunze in the end zone. The pass fell incomplete and the Bears had no more time left to try what would’ve been a game-tying field goal.
Instead, Detroit escaped with a win, 23-20, on Thursday at Ford Field. For head coach Matt Eberflus’ team, this was its sixth consecutive loss. The Bears dropped to 4-8 on the season, while the Lions won their 10th in a row.
Here are five big takeaways from the game.
1. Whose fault is this?
There’s certainly blame to go around.
The head coach defended his team’s decisions in the final seconds of the game, while the quarterback admitted he changed the play call in the final seconds. Read more about the chaotic final seconds here.
But it’s pretty clear, in retrospect, that the Bears should’ve used a timeout at some point – either as soon as the previous play ended or at some point during the confusion that followed.
“Yeah, you want it to be [called], but at the same time it didn’t get called,” receiver DJ Moore said.
“You look up and you realize we got a timeout. And it’s like, ‘Ah,’” receiver Keenan Allen said.
“That’s above my pay grade,” lineman Teven Jenkins added.
Williams said that in that situation, he was going to leave a momentous decision like that up to the head coach. Williams had called a timeout earlier on the same drive at his own discretion, but he was focused on running a play in the final seconds.
“I knew I took a timeout earlier and so I couldn’t take timeouts,” Williams said. “But in that situation, we had a call, I got the call in and trying to get the guys back, so [I was] focused on making sure everybody gets back, gets lined up.”
It was a frustrating ending for a team that fought back from a 16-0 deficit.
“I feel like we did enough as players to win the game,” Allen said.
2. An ugly first half
So how did they get there?
It started with maybe the Bears’ worst first half of the season. The offense failed to pick up a first down on the first four possessions. The Lions held the ball for 22:54 of game time, while the Bears managed just 7:06 in the first half. The Lions ran 47 plays and totaled 279 yards. The Bears ran 19 plays and totaled 53 yards.
It was a minor miracle that the Bears trailed by only 16 points at halftime.
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“We had a tough three-and-out on the first drive and then waited a while to get the ball back,” center Coleman Shelton said. “Whatever it is, we’ve got to find a way to get a rhythm early and we’ve got to get started early.”
The Bears dug themselves a hole, but it could’ve been a lot worse. They received the second-half kickoff and drove 74 yards on nine plays to score their first touchdown of the afternoon. It was a much-needed breakthrough that gave the Bears life.
3. Keenan Allen comes alive
Allen spurred the comeback effort with two touchdowns in the second half. He finished with five catches for 73 yards and two scores. This came just three days after he totaled 86 yards and a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings. Over the past two games, Allen has been a go-to target for Williams.
Williams capped off the first drive after halftime with a 31-yard touchdown to Allen over the middle.
The two connected again early in the fourth quarter for a 9-yard score that pulled the Bears within 10 points. A missed field goal try from the Lions left the door open for the Bears midway through the fourth quarter.
Later, on third-and-1 from the Lions’ 31-yard line, Williams signaled to Moore to change the play at the line of scrimmage. The rookie threw a perfect deep ball for a touchdown to pull the Bears within three points.
Williams finished the game 20-for-39 passing for 256 yards with three touchdowns. For a sixth consecutive game he played turnover-free football.
4. Two costly mistakes
Moments before the final play, the Bears faced a fourth-and-14 near midfield. It was do or die. Williams targeted Moore on the play. The duo couldn’t connect, but the refs threw a flag for defensive pass interference against Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor. It gave the Bears a first-and-10 at the Lions’ 25-yard line with just under a minute to go.
Two costly mistakes then set the offense moving backward. An incompletion on first down was fine, but on second down Jenkins, the left guard, drew a 10-yard penalty for sticking his hands in the face of a defender.
“Last few snaps, I need to be better,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins knocked his opponent’s helmet off, so the call was probably warranted. After the penalty, the Bears faced a second-and-20. That’s when right tackle Larry Borom completely whiffed against Lions edge rusher Za’Darius Smith. Borom was only playing because starting tackle Darnell Wright left the game earlier with a knee injury.
“It got loud of that point,” Williams said. “I believe Larry was over there and I think he just missed [him].”
The sack left the clock running with 32 seconds to go.
5. Does this seal Eberflus’ fate?
Is this the final straw? The Bears have never fired a head coach during a season, but Eberflus’ team keeps finding baffling ways to lose games.
The head coach lost 10 games in a row to end his first season (while the Bears were effectively tanking). In year two, his team started out 0-4 and blew three separate double-digit, fourth-quarter leads. Now in year three, his team has lost six in a row during a stretch that includes losses via Hail Mary, blocked last-second field goal, and whatever the heck Thursday was.
Did the Bears fight back and make it a game agains the NFC’s best team? Certainly. But they are now 14-32 under Eberflus, with a 5-19 record in one-possession games.
“I’m the head football coach, so I’m taking the blame, of course,” Eberflus said after the game. “That’s what you do. So, we didn’t get it done, it starts at the top and it starts right here.”
If the Bears were to make an in-season change, now might be the time. There’s a nine-day layoff between Thursday and their next game on Dec. 8 in San Francisco.
It would be unprecedented for the Bears. But the comedy of errors that seems to follow this team feels unprecedented too.
“We’ve got to pull together,” Eberflus said. “We’ve just got to keep pulling together, keep believing in each other.”
