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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff Writer
DETROIT — With 36 seconds remaining, trailing by three points after putting together a furious second-half comeback, the Chicago Bears were in position to tie or defeat the Lions on Thanksgiving Day.
But late-game clock mismanagement assured the Bears would not get the chance to complete a come-from-behind victory against their division rival. As time ran out on Chicago to solidify a sixth consecutive loss in the form of a 23-20 defeat, coach Matt Eberflus defended his decision for not calling a timeout in the final moments of the game.
“We’re at 36 seconds right there and our hope was, because it was third [down] going into fourth [down], that we would rerack that play at 18 seconds, throw it inbounds, get it in field goal range and then call a timeout,” Eberflus said.
Upon getting the ball back at Detroit’s 1-yard line with 3:31 to play, the Bears ran 13 plays before facing second-and-20 from the Lions’ 35-yard line. Quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked for a 6-yard loss with 32 seconds remaining as Detroit defensive end Za’Darius Smith went untouched to bring the rookie down.
Instead of calling a timeout ahead of what became Chicago’s final play while facing third-and-26 from Detroit’s 41-yard line, the Bears let the clock wind down. About 10 seconds passed before Williams frantically alerted the offense to get lined up for a pass play, and the ball was not snapped until there were six seconds remaining.
Williams launched a deep ball to rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze that bounced off the turn inside the 5-yard line as time expired.
“I knew when we snapped the ball that the [clock] was going to run out, so I was trying to get to the end zone,” Odunze said “We just didn’t get a great coverage for it. Moving forward, I’ll know what I need to do to get there.”
When asked postgame how the Bears should have handled the final sequence in retrospect, Eberflus doubled down on the team’s late-game operation.
“I like what we did there,” Eberflus said. “Again, once it’s under seven [seconds], you’re going to call a timeout there — actually under 12 and then really you don’t have an option because it’s third to fourth, you have to throw it into the end zone then.
“To me it’s — I think we handled it the right way, I do believe that you just rerack the play, get it in bounds and call timeout, and that’s why we held it and didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”
Twenty-six seconds elapsed from the time Williams was sacked to when the ball was snapped on the final play. The quarterback had called a timeout earlier in the drive but intimated that he was not in position to do so again, which led him to change the play with 13 seconds remaining to take one final shot.
“I made an adjustment because I saw the clock running down, knowing that if we complete a ball inbounds or anything like that, we won’t have time to kick a field goal or anything like that,” Williams said. “So, I made an adjustment and knew Rome was either going to be one-on-one or he was going to beat the safety and be one-on-one there and I tried to give him a shot and we got the shot and missed.”
Kicker Cairo Santos would have been in position to kick a 58-yard field goal on the final play of the game, but Eberflus said that the Bears were out of field goal range. Santos’ career long is 55 yards, which he’s made twice in his career (2020 at Panthers, 2023 at Vikings), but the kicker’s recent ups and downs, including blocked 48-yard field goals in back-to-back games against Green Bay and Minnesota along with kicking a field goal to send the Bears to overtime in Week 12 may have factored into Chicago’s decision to get closer to the end zone before sending its kicking unit out.
Santos, who was warming up on the sideline, did not expect for the final moments to unfold the way they did.
“I didn’t see that happening,” Santos said. “We rehearse these scenarios, and I imagine myself kicking that. I know we want to play for the win, but I just kind of imagine myself at least getting a shot there.”
Considering the Bears plan was to run a play once the clock hit 18 seconds to get in field goal range, Eberflus was also asked why he didn’t call a timeout at that moment upon seeing the ball had not been snapped.
“Once it gets under 12 [seconds], you gotta hold onto it then,” Eberflus said.
Eberflus pinned the Bears’ failures on the “whole operation” but defended Chicago’s communication in the final 36 seconds of the game.
“We were all on the same page there, we just have to do it a little bit better,” Eberflus said.
The loss marked Chicago’s sixth straight, which drops the Bears to 4-8. According to ESPN Research, since turnovers were first tracked in 1933, the Bears are the first team to go on a six-game losing streak without committing multiple turnovers in any of those games. The Bears have lost four games this season decided by 3 or fewer points, which is tied with the Jets for the most in the NFL and tied for the most such losses in a season franchise history (1983 and 2015).
Several Bears players were shocked that a timeout was not called in the final moments of the game.
“I all of a sudden see everybody come on the field and the game is over,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “So, I was like, ‘What the eff just happened?’ The sack happens. By the time I turned around, Caleb was pretty much on the ground. We just gotta find a way to not take a sack there and unfortunately the clock keeps running and I am sure the thought process was then to be able to get some yardage and then take the timeout and then kick the field goal. But we were just a little too late on that.”
Wide receiver DJ Moore, who logged a team-high eight catches for 97 yards and a touchdown, expressed similar disbelief over how the game ended.
“I mean, you’re just like ‘what the hell?’ Nah, it’s like ‘what the bleep’ but it is what it is,” Moore said. “It’s not ‘it is what it is’ but we’ve got to find a way to win. We keep coming back in these games and be having time to actually win the game and we just s— the bed.”
After being outgained by 226 yards, gaining one first down and being shutout in the first half, the Bears thundered back from a 16-point deficit beginning with a 74-yard touchdown drive to open the third quarter. Williams led the Bears on three touchdown drives in the second half, along the way setting a new franchise rookie record for passing touchdowns at 15.
Thursday’s loss extends Eberflus’ record to 5-19 in one-score games, the worst record by any coach with at least 20 such games in NFL history.
“It was tough,” wide receiver Keenan Allen said. “I feel like we did enough as players to win the game.”
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