Most of the Chicago Bears coaching staff will be on the unemployment line after this season, but that didn’t stop them from making some of the most difficult-to-watch decisions in the NFL in their 6-3 loss to the Seahawks on Thursday.
Trailing 6-3 with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter, the Bears lined up to go for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 39-yard line before a false start pushed them back five yards.
Interim coach Thomas Brown then decided to punt with all three timeouts remaining, but then used a timeout and sent the offense back out there to go for it again.
“It wasn’t confusion at all, I just changed my mind,” Brown told reporters after the game. “I changed my mind and said, ‘Let’s go for it now,’ and sent the offense back on the grass.”
Bears fans rained down boos on the team after they wasted the timeout, although the decision temporarily worked out when Caleb Williams lofted a pass to receiver DJ Moore for a first down.
Fans were also enraged when Brown called timeout again with the clock stopped after Williams threw the ball away on third-and-10 from the Seahawks’ 40 with just 35 seconds left.
“Just being able to have cleaner communication, getting out of the huddle, snap the ball faster,” Brown said of using another timeout. “We didn’t want to waste plays. Have a timeout from a delay of game standpoint, so that was the whole reason for burning a timeout.”
Brown also did not trust his kicker to try a 57-yard field goal to tie the game and instead opted for a play on fourth-and-10, which resulted in a game-sealing interception.
Fans have about had it up to their limit in Chicago.
They started the season 4-2 and appeared destined for 5-2 before defensive back Tyrique Stevenson began chirping at Commanders fans before Jayden Daniels dropped back to throw a Hail Mary and successfully completed it to win the Week 8 game.
Chicago is now 4-12, having lost 10 straight games.
Brown took over for coach Matt Eberflus, but neither coaching staff has been successful, as their rookie quarterback has regressed throughout his first season.
Bears fan and WWE wrestler CM Punk destroyed the team’s ownership group on Christmas Day.
“Nothing’s going to change until the McCaskeys sell the team. I said it,” Punk said prior to Chiefs-Steelers. “We’re live on Netflix, I don’t care. I’ve been there. Oh, Lovie Smith is going to change the Bears. Oh, [Mitchell] Trubisky is going to change the Bears. Then we trade up, and we lose [Patrick] Mahomes.”
Chicago ends its terrible season on the road against the Packers next week.
