Bear Digest

The good, the bad, and the ugly of final heartbreaking Bears defeat

Dealing with the loss proved tough for the Bears but apparently even worse for a lot of fans who decided to tarnish what will be remembered as a special season.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kyren Williams leaves C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the snow and ice on a fourth-quarter touchdown run to put L.A. up 17-10.
Kyren Williams leaves C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the snow and ice on a fourth-quarter touchdown run to put L.A. up 17-10. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears go through exit interviews and clean out lockers today, but the pity party and blame game will continue on for weeks if not all of the offseason on social media.

Already, Caleb Williams decision making, Ben Johnson's play calling, DJ Moore's route running and Rome Odunze's hands have led to countless complaints and untethered whining among those with nothing more invested than their television and time on Sundays.

After the game, players all talked about how much work they had put into themselves and the heartbreak of finally running out of magical plays after those made up their diet for weeks.

The amount of good fortune they had simply to make it within a win of trip to Seattle for the conference finals even came up a few times, and Kevin Byard half-expected a blocked field goal, botched snap or missed kick might rescue them from the 20-17 overtime loss just like Williams' prayer fourth-down pass had done at the end of regulation.

"This is going to sting, this is going to sting," Odunze said.

Trying to build a team capable of doing things without relying on last-second theatrics is the route they take next as Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson put their heads together to try and way to stop the run and rush the passer, while tweaking the offense.

One thing has been established, though.

"You know, you don't get cultures like this very often," safety Kevin Byard said. "It's probably the most fun I've had playing football this year with just so many other special wins, the ups and downs, the adversity faced.

"It was just a special year."

Here's the good, the bad and the ugly from a game that ended something special.

The Good

Caleb's last miracle

Described as "insane" and "ridiculous" in the locker room, Williams said he felt confident something like that 14-yard touchdown pass that sailed 45 yards to Cole Kmet after he backtracked would lead to a win.

"You envision it, especially after that moment," Williams said. "Like I said, you want to have those positive things in your mind in those moments, to be able to go out there and try and win a game.”

They had the chance, too. It sat at the L.A. 48-yard line, second-and-8 and then instead of an insane TD, Williams' third interception gave Matthew Stafford a chance to direct a 10-play, 54-yard drive to the winning kick.

"We kind of did what we did all season long there, we just came up short in the end," Kmet said.

Dennis Allen's game plan

The cold and crowd noise favored the Bears defense but all year they lacked a four-man pass rush consistently capable of pressuring teams with better offensive lines and passers.

So Dennis Allen schemed up a number of blitzes with defensive backs and kept the heat on Matthew Stafford.

Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon made big sacks to complement the sacks made by Montez Sweat and Dominique Robinson. They had three sacks in the first half, held the Rams to 5 of 16 (31.3%) on third downs and 4.4 yards per play, which was 0.7 yards less than the Bears offense. It still wasn't enough. They limited Puka Nacua and Davante Adams to 80 combined receiving yards on seven catches.

“There were some things we can do better, and I can communicate a little bit better, I think, to help make sure that we're in the right spot and our guys are going in the right spot," Stafford said. "But I have to give Dennis Allen some credit. They did a nice job did a nice job mixings it up on us.

"Was able to sniff some of (the blitzes) out late, even on some run plays, and be able to get us closed up edge-wise, which was great and kept us moving. But, yeah, they did a nice job mixing it up on us. Tough environment to communicate in. But I obviously can do a better job of making sure that we all know where we need to go and execute that stuff.”

The O-line

After all the worry about Joe Thuney moving to tackle for injured Ozzy Trapilo, and Jordan McFadden playing for the first time at guard in is place, the Bears offensive line made it possible for 160 rushing yards, 49 more than the Rams had. They gave up no sacks to a defense that thrived using its four-man rush.

The Bad

The gambling

Johnson continued being aggressive on fourth downs, especially early in games, and the Bears were only 3-for-6 on them.

In the first half, after Rome Odunze's dropped pass at the goal line, he went for it on fourth-and-2 from the Rams 21 on the first Bears possession, a scoreless game, and came away with nothing when Williams had no one open and threw it in the vicinity of Colston Loveland for an interception by Cobie Durant at the Bears 15. Taking the field goal there gives the Bears a 3-0 lead.

They did get their first touchdown on a fourth-and-3 gamble with a pass to DJ Moore to tie it at 7-7 but later in the half they went for fourth-and-1 at the Rams 32 with Kyle Monangai run and it got stuffed.

Assuming Cairo Santos makes both of those field goals--a big assumption because a 50-yarder on the second one would have been tough in those conditions--the game is totally different. In fact, with just one of those the Bears could have won in regulation. At worst, the entire sequence of plays in the second half would have changed.

The final pick

The last interception thrown by Caleb Williams clearly was Moore's fault, although it wasn't clear how good the pass was because the incorrect path Moore took didn't allow a judgment on the actual throw.

Williams said he assumed Moore was going to "flatten" his route, or run it more laterally near the end, while he took it back deeper beyond DB Kam Curl. It made the interception possible but still required a tough catch for a DB to make and Curl made it.

Officially bad

A missed and obvious offensive pass interference against Puka Nacua for blocking off defenders on Colby Parkinson's  35-yard fourth-quarter catch and run set up the go-ahead Rams touchdown. It didn't even qualify as an illegal pick or screen. Nacua had his back to the line of scrimmage and walled off two defenders to get Parkinson free before the reception.

The unnecessary roughness call on Gervon Dexter with 18 seconds left in the first half at the Bears 28 put the ball in easy field goal range, while stopping the clock when the Rams had no more timeouts. They then tied it on a 32-yard field goal on the last play of the second quarter.

Unnecessary, yes. Roughness? There are plenty of brands of toilet paper much rougher. It was dumb of Dexter to even put his hand out for an ever-so-slight shove, but it also came at the echo of the whistle. They could have found a dozen acts dirtier long after whistles in that game.

The ugly

Odunze's drop

He couldn't really explain the ball going through his hands at the goal line after he'd run a great route to be open on the first Bears drive, other than to say it was a catch he should have made.

The only thing uglier than the drop and the ball striking his body after he missed a sure touchdown was the explanation given by Cris Collinsworth on the NBC telecast of the game. As a former receiver, Collinsworth always defends receivers.

He explained that it's tough for receivers in such poor weather because they're used to catching with their hands and suddenly need to use their bodies to assist in such cold weather.

Wow. Buy some glasses buddy.

Social media

Horrible slights, terrible slams and cursing, calls for DJ Moore to be traded because of the interception, for Rome Odunze to be traded for the drop and for Johnson to quit with the "good, better, best" after the loss ran rampant on social media.

Talk about ingrates.

This team was given no chance of being in the divisional finals or winning the division, spat in the face of certain defeat half a dozen times during the regular season and found the most incredible ways to overachieve in Johnson's first season.

Yet obnoxious comments filled up "X."

Those people who spat on what Byard called a "special season" need to go watch soccer or the winter Olympics or something and leave the NFL alone. Better yet, get rid of your cell phone and computer.

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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.