Bears’ Brown denies late-game confusion in loss to Seahawks

CHICAGO – A month after clock management issues against the Detroit Lions led to the firing of coach Matt Eberflus, the Chicago Bears sealed their 10th straight loss when timeout issues and no attempt at a potential tying field goal resulted in a 6-3 loss. to the Seattle Seahawks.

Thursday’s Seahawks-Bears matchup was one of two NFL games this season without a touchdown. Chicago totaled 179 yards of offense, its fourth-lowest output in 2024, and managed just one field goal in its final home game of the season.

Similar to how the Bears’ loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving played out, Chicago trailed by three entering their final series. The Bears took possession with 5 minutes and 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter at their 11-yard line with all three timeouts.

Chicago ran six plays before facing fourth-and-inches from its 39-yard line when left guard Jake Curhan, who started in place of the injured Teven Jenkins (calf), was flagged for a false start.

The Bears were in punt formation when interim head coach Thomas Brown used his team’s first timeout with 2:14 left. A situation that appeared to be the result of confusion on the bench was a byproduct of Brown’s decision to be more aggressive.

“It wasn’t any confusion,” Brown said. “I just changed my mind. I think being able to use [punter] conservative [Taylor] as a weapon, and we still had, I think it was, 2:16 on the clock, we still had our three timeouts, plus the two-minute warning. The way our defense had been playing all day, we’d possibly have a chance to turn the field over and force the three, get a shorter field and have, like, one last drive at the end of the game. That was my thought process.

“In the course of that, I changed my mind and said, ‘Let’s go for it now,’ and sent the offense back to the turf.”

Quarterback Caleb Williams connected with receiver DJ Moore on the ensuing fourth-and-5 play for a 14-yard gain. The Bears ran a play after the two-minute warning and allowed 45 seconds to run off the clock before rookie Rome Odunze gained 15 yards on third-and-14 to move the Bears into Seattle territory.

But Chicago didn’t advance the ball beyond the Seahawks’ 40-yard line, and another one-score loss would end in similarly confusing fashion.

Williams said he was hit in the throat by Seattle’s pressure after throwing a deep pass to Odunze. Between the time the play began and the time Chicago took its next play on first down, an additional 38 seconds were deducted from the clock.

“I don’t know if the coaches saw me there after the big move to Rome,” Williams said. “Even though I got hit in the throat and in the face, I just had to get up and run down and throw the ball.”

The Bears ended up using their second timeout on second-and-10 from the Seattle 40-yard line, and a frustrated Williams was seen yelling toward the sideline.

Just like in Detroit, the Bears needed a field goal to tie the score and crossed the 50-yard line with 1:05 left. After losing 83 seconds of play, Chicago failed to attempt a field goal.

Brown confirmed that kicker Cairo Santos’ kick line was between the 34 and 37 yards. If the Bears had kicked a field goal on fourth down, Santos would have had a 57-yard attempt. The length of his run is 55 yards.

Brown then explained his thought process about not running the ball on second or third down from the Seattle 40-yard line to advance the ball to give Santos a shorter down.

“A couple of things. I felt good about the racing,” Brown said. “I still wanted to go for the win. But like I mentioned before, there aren’t a lot of good options running the ball versus zero coverage. So I felt better throwing the ball.”

After reaching Seattle’s 40-yard line, the Bears threw four straight passes, the last of which resulted in Williams throwing his first interception after throwing 353 passes without a fumble (fourth most in NFL history ).

“I think there are obviously times where you can have a better decision, want a better decision, things like that, but we didn’t execute it,” Williams said. “I didn’t execute a lot of different times in this game, and it’s frustrating. But I have to find a way.”

After the game, several Bears players described a chaotic feeling on the sideline as Chicago used two of its three timeouts in situations that did not allow the offense to move the ball closer to field goal range.

“There were some wrinkles there,” Moore said. “The one time everything fell apart and we didn’t really know what to do. But at the end of the day, shoot, that’s on us. We have to be prepared throughout the game and, I mean, that’s all I can say.” .