Bear Digest

Bears fans may not want to hear what Cole Kmet said about the future

A rough loss to accept in overtime ends Chicago's season and despite high hopes for the future there is also realism about what is ahead.
Gene Chamberlain|
Harrison Mevis kicks it through and the Rams celebrate while the Bears are left to ponder what might have been.
Harrison Mevis kicks it through and the Rams celebrate while the Bears are left to ponder what might have been. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

A Bears locker room normally filled with laughing and loud talk was very still Sunday night, not a dead silence like after the 2018 Cody Parkey double doink because there is still an air of underlying excitement about the season ended and the future ahead.

Still, the 20-17 overtime loss to the Rams broke hearts as they pondered what could have been after rallying miraculously to tie in the closing seconds of regulation.

"Our guys are feeling it right now," coach Ben Johnson said. "They all believed, man. They all believed that we could find a way to win each and every week. And so it's disappointing like that."

Harrison Melvis dashed their hopes and ended their season with a 42-yard field goal.

"It ends quickly and that's life in this league," Johnson said.

Even then, on what is a relatively routine field goal by NFL standards, the Bears hoped yet another miracle could save them. They had won on a Josh Blackwell blocked field goal against the Raiders, had pulled one out against the Packers after an onside kick.

In the snow, anything could happen.

"The belief was there up until the kick went through," safety Kevin Byard said. "Like I said, it hurts. It hurts, I hurt."

Caleb Williams' miracle TD pass hadn't quite done the trick. The defense gave up a scoring drive to end it after the third Williams interception.

"In these moments you feel that you let your team down, you feel this and that," Williams said. "It's a good lesson learned for us, first time being in this situation for me and for us as a team."

Applying those lessons won't start to happen again until spring, when the entire process renews with OTAs.

"Every year it's its own thing, but I will say the core of this team, the young players, obviously the players that have some longer contracts, we've got a good core that the organization has done a good job of building," Williams said. "So the growth that we've had and things like that, it's going to be enjoyable. We're going to be here for a little bit.

"I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the growth. I'm excited about being able to go back and watch this. I'm excited to being able to get back and next year being able to learn more than I did this year, keep growing, and us as a team and an organization to be able to keep growing.”

Tight end Cole Kmet, one of the most veteran of all Bears in terms of tenure, knows it's not that simple.

As Walter Payton once said, tomorrow is promised to no one. While the Bears like to talk about laying the foundation in 2025 for future success, it's a cruel league.

"I understand but the work that we put in was for this year, not for next year," Kmet said. "We take our time off here and reset and the team, off what it's going to be next year, settles in for itself and it starts all over again. It's 0-and-0 and it's going to be twice as hard to get to this point. You know? And you can't take for granted the opportunities you get in this league to get to this chance and to have a chance to go to the NFC Championship Game and who knows from there?

"To just think that's going to happen again, that's very wishful thinking, very wishful. We play in a tough division. I know we won the division but we also went 2-4 in the division this year and those teams are going to come back hungry next year."

Ultimately, the Bears came a long way and were good, even better than in recent years.

They weren't best.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.