Chicago Bears

After Bears blow 21-point lead, it's fair to question if they're ready to win

Updated Oct. 1, 2023 5:34 p.m. ET

The Chicago Bears aren't a winning franchise.

Not in their current iteration.

Even when they finally seemed to figure things out against the league's worst defense on Sunday, they couldn't hold on, falling 31-28 to the Denver Broncos. It is their 14th straight loss.

"There were a lot of good moments in there," said head coach Matt Eberflus after the game, citing the play of quarterback Justin Fields and the way the defense responded at certain points in the game. "Super excited about those things and what we can build upon."

But the Bears simply didn't have 60 minutes' worth of ‘moments’ to seal the deal.

Sure, the first half went entirely the Bears' way. Quarterback Justin Fields was 16-of-17 for 231 yards and three touchdowns, good for a perfect 158.3 passer rating. His only incompletion came on a hail mary to end the half. The Bears' 265 total yards outpaced their entire net total the week prior in Kansas City, where they only had 203 yards of offense through four quarters.

By the time the game was over, Fields would tally his first 300-yard performance and first four-touchdown game. He finished 28-of-35 for 335 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception. We saw more play action, more bootlegs, designed runs and misdirection. Fields' first and second reads were there. The offensive line held up their end of the deal in both pass protection and the run game. Chicago rushed for 171 yards and saw Khalil Herbert go over 100 rushing yards on the day.

Save for the Broncos' first possession, the Chicago defense had also clamped down. They got a sack on Denver quarterback Russell Wilson while also allowing just two third-down conversions in the first half. They continued that into most of the third quarter, allowing just 10 plays by Denver, eight of which came on a scoring drive at the end of the quarter.

But that four-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to wide receiver Brandon Johnson proved to be the pull thread that caused the Bears to unravel.

From the defense to the playcalling to the offensive mistakes, the Chicago Bears' handling of the fourth quarter was indicative of a team that is just not used to winning.

The Broncos went on to score 24 unanswered points as Eberflus' unit missed assignments, missed tackles and completely missed the mark.

The tying score came when Fields was strip-sacked on a questionable play by an unblocked Nik Bonitto. The ball was then picked up by Jonathan Cooper, who ran it in the rest of the way for the defensive score.

With the game tied at 28, on fourth-and-1 from the Broncos' 18-yard line, Eberflus elected to go for it. But it was just to get the Broncos to jump. The Bears called a timeout and looked like they were taking the easy field goal.

Except they didn't. They burned the timeout needlessly when they trotted their offense back out onto the field. And instead of putting a gifted scrambling quarterback under center and sneaking him across the line, the coaching staff had Fields set up in shotgun and hand the ball off to Herbert. Yes, Herbert had been succeeding up the middle, but on a condensed short-yardage situation, the decision to not put the ball as close to the line of scrimmage as possible as quickly as possible was baffling. Herbert didn't convert and the Bears turned the ball over on downs.

"I think that the way we were running the football and the confidence that we had on offense in that moment, I would say that we're going to do that there," Eberflus said of the play, doubling down on the decision to place Fields in the shotgun. "That's the play we thought was the best at the time. It's about moving people off the ball, as we'd been doing all day, and we just have to execute in that moment."

Fair questioning with not sufficient answers.

Wilson then promptly completed a 48-yard pass that got Denver into field goal range immediately. They'd end up settling for one, too, as Wil Lutz hit a 51-yarder for the Broncos to take a 31-28 lead with 1:47 to go.

Fields and the Bears still had a chance.

But they're just not used to winning.

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Fields was called for an intentional grounding penalty as he threw the ball in the dirt while being tackled. Chicago elected to burn their last time out instead of taking the 10-second runoff. They were then faced with second-and-21 after the penalty with 45 seconds left in the game. That turned into third and 13 while the Bears were still on their own side of the field. It was up to the offense to at least get into field goal range. Get maybe 15 more yards to make it manageable for kicker Cairo Santos, who had a career-long of 55 yards.

Instead, the play was rushed, Fields held the ball too long, couldn't read the field and threw an interception. It's a sight Bears fans have seen too many times before. If only the Bears had had another timeout.

It was a breakdown, yet again, of all three phases of the ball.

You could argue that there was incremental improvement by the offense. The Bears at least got a taste of what works. But it's now fair to turn the microscope over to the defensive side of the ball.

Eberflus has taken over playcalling duties after defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned before the Bears' Week 3 loss to the Chiefs. Plenty of head coaches call plays for their respective sides of the ball. It isn't too much of an ask. But the lack of any sort of improvement and the breakdown of clock management means Eberflus is falling short in both of his primary responsibilities.

Eberflus was then questioned after the game about the absence of wide receiver Chase Claypool, who had been ruled inactive as a healthy scratch prior to the game. It's customary that inactive players are still with their teams, especially during home games. But Eberflus confirmed Claypool was not present at the stadium for the game, though he had no other answers for why.

"Did you guys tell him to stay home?" Eberflus was asked.

"No."

"He chose to stay home?" reporters asked.

"No— What are you asking?" Eberflus said.

"Why was he not at the stadium today like the other inactive players?" came the next question.

"I'm not sure," said Eberflus.

"So it was his choice?" said the reporter.

"We told him it was a choice and he is at home right now."

The Bears' public stance, however, is different.

Eberflus said he still anticipates Claypool being back in the building tomorrow.

The biggest blown lead in franchise history begs more questions Eberflus will have to answer, and those are going to come sooner rather than later.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.