Bears interim coach says there was ‘no confusion’ in timeout-wasting sequence: ‘I just changed my mind’

The Chicago Bears’ 6-3 defeat by the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday was sealed with a Caleb Williams interception, but there was one sequence earlier in the drive that showed the team to be well and truly lost.

With 5:12 left in the game, the Bears got the ball back and had a chance to either tie the game or take the lead. They could also afford a three-and-out, as they had all three of their timeouts left. The worst thing that could have happened was the drive eating multiple minutes off the clock without gaining many yards.

As anyone familiar with the Bears this season could predict, that last scenario was the one that came true.

After a run up the middle gave Chicago a first down with 4:17 left. Williams scrambled to make it 2nd-and-2, and then the wheels fell off. A pass to Keenan Allen and another Williams scrambled gained only one yard, while eating more than a minute off the clock. Now down to 2:12 left, the Bears were faced with a 4th-and-inches on their own 38-yard line.

Chicago elected to go for it, but a false start by right guard Jake Curhan made it a 4th-and-5. So interim head coach Thomas Brown elected to send out the punt team. And then call his first timeout of the half. And then send the offense back out.

Fortunately, Williams delivered with a great play, perhaps his best of the game, with a running throw to a covered D.J. Moore, but the final tally for the Bears over the previous two plays was two minutes and three seconds, a vital timeout and negative four yards. The time between third and fourth down alone cost them a full 40 seconds.

The result of that fourth-down play was a continued drive for the Bears, as well as a commitment. They were still in their own territory, with 2:05 remaining.

Incredibly, that wasn’t even the only wasted timeout of the drive, as the Bears lined up for 2nd-and-10 once they were finally in Seattle territory and burned their second of the half after some confusion at the line of scrimmage.

Williams was visibly frustrated as he walked to the sideline, while the Soldier Field crowd rained down boos on the ongoing time management disaster.

Notably, the Bears could have attempted a roughly 58-yard field goal from the 40, which would have been a career long for kicker Cairo Santos. Brown opted to go for the first down.

The Bears didn’t get another first down, as Williams threw an incomplete pass on third down then the interception on 4th-and-10 to end the lowest-scoring game of the 2024 NFL season. It was the Bears’ 10th straight loss and their final home game of the season.

When asked about burning his first timeout to pull back the punt team, Brown denied there was confusion, then explained his thought process in a rather confusing manner:

Brown responded to a follow-up question about why he changed his mind by saying, “Just wanted to be more aggressive.”

That’s not exactly going to absolve Brown in Bears fans’ eyes. Though to be fair, most of them are probably just looking away at this point. There’s one game left on Chicago’s schedule: a road game against the Green Bay Packers next Sunday