It didn’t matter that the Chicago Bears were already locked into a playoff spot. It didn’t matter that Sunday’s 19-16 loss against the Detroit Lions didn’t hurt their playoff seed.
Ben Johnson was not happy with his offense.
“We can’t dig ourselves in a hole like that,” Johnson said. “I was disappointed in the offense as a whole. I let those guys know that and we’ll be better for it.”
The Bears nearly pulled themselves back from the dead yet again with a furious comeback effort. They erased a 16-0 deficit with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter Sunday at Soldier Field. They converted both two-point tries as well, pulling even at 16-16.
But an overall flat effort was not how Johnson envisioned his team heading into the postseason. The Bears still earned the No. 2 seed and will host the Green Bay Packers at 7 p.m. Saturday in a wild-card round playoff game, despite the fact that they lost the final two regular-season games to San Francisco and Detroit.
The Bears failed to score in the first half Sunday. They went 4-for-11 on third-down attempts. The offense totaled 270 yards and the run game recorded 65 yards, both season worsts.
The frustration was palpable in the postgame locker room.
“Not pleased at all,” rookie tight end Colston Loveland said. “Slow start. You never want to end a season like that.”
Loveland led the Bears with 10 catches for 91 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown grab pulled the Bears within two points with the clock ticking under six minutes. Moments later, quarterback Caleb Williams connected with veteran tight end Cole Kmet for a two-point conversion to tie the game.
At that point, the home crowd at Soldier Field fully believed that these Bears — a team with six fourth-quarter comebacks on its resume — were going to win the game.
Safety Kevin Byard’s interception with 2:11 remaining in the game gave the offense a chance to take the lead. An intentional grounding penalty against Williams on second-and-10 severely hampered the possession. A third-down pass to running back Kyle Monangai picked up 15 yards and the Bears were then facing a fourth-and-5 at their own 31-yard line.
During the two-minute warning timeout, Johnson considered keeping his offense on the field and going for it before eventually deciding to punt.
“We had three timeouts and we felt like we were going to get the ball back,” Johnson said.
The Bears never saw the football again.
Johnson put his faith in his defense, but Jared Goff and the Lions picked up two first downs — including a 26-yard gain from receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown — and kicker Jake Bates made a 42-yard field goal to win the game as time expired.
The Lions had the better offense on Sunday, and that was part of the problem. The Bears punted on their first two possessions, and the Lions responded with long scoring drives that ate up the clock. The Bears had only three offensive possessions in the first half.
“When you’re playing a good offense on the other side, you know you’re going to have limited tries at it,” Loveland said. “So our mentality is: Score every time we get the ball. And obviously we didn’t do that.”
Williams set the Bears’ single-season passing yards record during the game. He finished the regular season with 3,942 passing yards, surpassing Erik Kramer’s 1995 record of 3,838 passing yards. Williams also ended his season with 27 touchdown passes, two behind Kramer’s record of 29 set in that same 1995 season.
Williams completed 20 of 33 passes on Sunday, totaling 212 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. But the second-year quarterback was less than thrilled with his new record in the face of back-to-back losses.
“Need to win the game,” Williams said.
He also said, “that number is the number and so be it.”
This Bears offense put up 38 points a week ago in a 42-38 shootout loss against the 49ers. Against a banged-up Lions defense, expectations were much higher for Sunday’s game.
The Bears were without their starting left tackle in rookie Ozzy Trapilo, who missed the game with knee and quad injuries, but backup Theo Benedet had started seven games this season. Trapilo’s absence certainly wasn’t the reason for the prolonged offensive struggles Sunday.
The Bears failed to find any rhythm.
“I didn’t think it was one of our more elaborate (game) plans,” Johnson said. “I thought it was one of our simpler plans, and so we need to do a better job executing it and coaching it up.”
The offense has no choice but to turn the page and do so quickly. But Sunday left a pretty bad taste in the Bears’ mouths.
“I wouldn’t say (there’s) momentum off of two straight losses,” running back D’Andre Swift said. “I don’t know how you can gain momentum from that, but another opportunity, a great opportunity to make it in the playoffs. And everything kind of resets from that standpoint.”
Thanks to Washington’s win over Philadelphia, the Bears still earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC. They will face a Packers team they’ve battled close twice, losing a heartbreaker on Dec. 7 at Lambeau Field and winning Dec. 20 in overtime at Soldier Field.
This one will once again be on home turf at Soldier Field. It will be the third-ever playoff game between the two historic franchises.
“(I) feel good about anybody,” Williams said. “Whatever position we’re going to be in, whatever position we’re in now, I feel good about us versus anybody.”