Thursday’s night game between the Bears and Seahawks set football back at least 40 years and yet somehow the Bears found a new way to lose. The 6-3 loss to the Seahawks dropped them to 4-12 on the season and it marked their 10th consecutive loss.
For once the defense played well, holding the league’s 5th rated passing offense to 6 points and 143 yards passing. They were able to sack Geno Smith 3 times and forced a fumble that should have been a touchdown for Kyler Gordon. The problem once again was the offense. They only gained 179 yards of offense on 3.1 yards per play. Even worse was the time management, play calling and use of timeouts especially during the final Bears drive where they were looking to win the game.
The things that were blamed on Matt Eberflus – decision making, lack of attention to detail, time clock management and use of timeouts – were on full display during Thursday night’s game. The ineptitude of the Bears offense since the firing of Matt Eberflus all but secured that interim Head Coach Thomas Brown has zero shot of returning as the Bears’ head coach. This stretch also ensured that no one from this coaching staff will return. Before Thursday night’s game, the defense gave up 30+ points in 4 of its last 5 games.
With each passing game, this team is more and more a stinging indictment on how GM Ryan Poles has constructed the coaching staff and team. The offensive line was a disaster on Thursday night as they gave up 7 more sacks. QB Caleb Williams has been sacked 67 times this season. That’s the 2nd most for a rookie in an NFL season and 4th most sacks in a season all-time. Caleb wasn’t particularly good that night but I’m not going to put the blame on a rookie QB when his coaches aren’t properly game planning and his offensive line can’t protect him.
As the season draws to a close, the Bears ownership is going to have some tough decisions to make. Before they can decide on a head coach, the draft and how to build this team the right way, they must decide if Ryan Poles is going to be the person to try and right a ship that has been rudderless for well over a decade. In Ryan Poles’ defense he was hired just 2 days before Matt Eberflus. He was given a list of finalists and he didn’t conduct his own search for a head coach. Poles did choose Eberflus from the list of finalists(the other two names were Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell). That decision fueled the nonsense that has ensued for the last 3 years. Instead of admitting mistakes were made and looking for ways to course correct, fans were fed lines about how the “culture” of the team was strong.
Ryan Poles will more than likely be brought back even though there are rumblings that his job security is in serious doubt. Team President Kevin Warren is definitely unhappy with the way this team has performed over this season. Remember, fans were told that this season would see the Bears get into playoff contention and the moves made over the offseason would be the launching pad for them. Despite this season falling completely off the rails, ESPN’s Adam Schefter believes Poles will be here to pick the Bears’ next head coach:
"They're going to go on a search to find a partner for Caleb Williams… You have to figure that they're going to want to get some type of offensive-minded head coach that can get the best out of Caleb Williams… " – Adam Schefter on the Bears HC search pic.twitter.com/hZZNdT3T7z
— Matt Clapp (@DaBearNecess) December 17, 2024
Make no mistake though – this is Ryan Poles’ last chance. We outlined Ryan Poles’ shortcomings and mistakes in detail and the belief is Bears president Kevin Warren is looking to take complete control of the operation of the team. The only asset of importance in Warren’s mind is QB Caleb Williams and his ascension. Picking the right head coach and players that can play with Williams is going to be crucial if Ryan Poles wants to keep his job as GM.
With the Bears’ mistakes on full display in front of the league, the nation and most importantly the fans it’s no wonder this was the sound as Thursday’s game drew to a close:
“Sell the team” chants at Soldier Field pic.twitter.com/44NlAWSGDk
— Jacob Infante (@jacobinfante24) December 27, 2024
Mercifully, the Bears have just one game left this season. Unfortunately, that game will be in Lambeau Field against the playoff bound Packers who will be looking to stay ahead of the Washington Commanders in the playoff seeding. Once that game ends and this season comes to a close, the real season begins.
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