How the Bears wasted the final 32 seconds in their sixth straight loss

The Chicago Bears fired head coach Matt Eberflus on November 29.

DETROIT — Seconds are ticking down in the same way. The measure of a second does not change from clock to clock. “One thousand,” we said on the playground.

The clock can rush you, but a clock is not in a hurry. It was 0:32 when Caleb Williams was sacked on second down with the ball at Detroit’s 41-yard line, and it just kept going.

Thirty-two seconds with one timeout and the ball on Detroit’s 41-yard line? That’s miraculous for a team on a losing streak that trailed 16-0, gave up two first downs in the first half and then trailed 23-13 in the fourth quarter.

Thirty-two seconds, the clock is running. One-thousand, one-Mississippi. It’s all the same. Players are running, arms are waving feverishly, a match is up for grabs, a coach’s job may be on the line.

As every second dwindled to zero, to a sixth straight defeat, the team’s fourth defeat in six weeks at the last game, another mind-boggling, astonishing way to lose a game, everyone was wondering: what’s in for heaven’s sake happened? How did this happen?

“These are things you only do once in a while,” wide receiver DJ Moore said.

Wild ending to this one. #CHIvsDET pic.twitter.com/zwR7g1Efv9

—NFL (@NFL) November 28, 2024

Players return to the line of scrimmage. Play is going on. Seven seconds have come and gone. Twenty-five seconds left. Center Coleman Shelton waves his hands to get the boys moving. Williams motions his receivers back to the line.

“I was just trying to get to the ball as quickly as possible,” Shelton said. “I heard the call of the play, so I tried to go out there and do what we do.”

The goal, head coach Matt Eberflus said, was to make a play with 18 seconds left on the clock, throw in a pass, call a timeout and kick the tying field goal.

“We liked the game we were playing and we were hoping he would call or the ball would break, and we would have called a timeout right away,” he said.

With 22 seconds left, Williams waves his hands above his helmet to signal the play to his teammates. Another second passes. Another one. We reach 18 seconds and the offense is not lined up. Williams points to the left and makes the same waving motion.

Now the offense’s inability to intervene in sufficient time has suddenly changed the circumstances. But the clock doesn’t stop unless they call a timeout. Another second or two goes by.

“We just have to do better together,” Eberflus said of the team’s inability to finish in 18 seconds. “We have to do a better job together to replay that play, finish it and then call a timeout as soon as it gets in there.”

Williams is in the shotgun with 13 seconds left. Nearly twenty seconds have passed since the looting. That’s how long it took to get on the same page, but not everyone is ready. Eberflus gestures with his hand, trying to force the click.

He said once the time got under 12 seconds he wouldn’t call a timeout. Then the Bears would not have enough time at that point to make an additional play to set up a field goal. The Lions would defend the sideline.

Williams saw the clock running. He made a change to the line.

“I made an adjustment and knew (Bears wide receiver) Rome (Odunze) was either going to be one-on-one or he was going to beat the safety and be there one-on-one, and I tried to give him a shot and we got the shot and missed,” he said.

The seconds on the clock move at the same speed. It may feel faster in deafening Ford Field as Lions fans with the Super Bowl on their minds try to help their defense. But the Bears weren’t hurried enough.

From 11 seconds to six seconds, everyone is done. Five seconds come and go. One thousand, two thousand, until the last click. At this point, Williams knows it’s one action. This also applies to Odunze.

“I knew when we hit the ball that the clock was going to run out, so I tried to get to the end zone,” he said. “We just couldn’t get good coverage for it. In the future, I know what I have to do to get there.”

Odunze is on the Lions’ 6-yard line as the ball hits the turf in front of him. He had Lions corner Terrion Arnold draped over him and a safety coming to help. Even a completed pass might not have been a touchdown.

When the pass falls incomplete, it is all zeros. Those 32 seconds have come and gone.

The Bears ran one play. They left the field with one timeout in hand.

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“You’re like, ‘What the hell?’ No, it’s like, ‘What kind of beep?’ but it is what it is,” Moore said. “It’s not ‘it is what it is,’ but we have to find a way to win.”

Keenan Allen, who caught two touchdown passes in the loss, didn’t realize at the time that it was the final play.

“Once I saw the Detroit Lions walking on the field, I thought, ‘Damn, what are they doing? What’s going on?” he said. “I didn’t realize time was up. I feel like time was running, the whole time we weren’t doing that… and then you look up and realize we got a timeout. And it’s like, ‘Ah…,’ yeah.’

The Hail Mary. The blocked field goal. The loss in overtime. And now the waste of the clock on Thanksgiving Day. Another late game situation that was completely mismanaged.

Eberflus should have called a timeout. Williams and the offense should have happened faster. The entire group should have been ready for this moment and known how to deal with it. There is no excuse for getting one play-off in that situation, leaving the field with a timeout in hand and not giving your kicker a chance to tie the game.

Even if Williams made a mistake at the start by not snapping the ball with 18 seconds left, and even if their options would have been limited, Eberflus still should and could have called a timeout.

If he calls it with 15 seconds left, they can make a quick run. If it’s a first time, they’ll clock it out. If not, rush the field goal unit there. Not ideal, but also better than what happened.

Or maybe they make two shots in the end zone. If he calls with eight seconds left, they can at least discuss a final play, a more efficient pass to try to win it. He also could have called a timeout when Williams went down. Then they would still have time to grab a scoop in the middle of the field and clock it or make a rushed field goal.

With everything that has happened, the clamor for Eberflus’ job will only increase after a loss like this.

“I mean, this is the NFL and I know where it is, and I’m just going to put my best foot forward and I’m going to get to work and keep fighting,” he said. “So that’s what we do.”

Williams is a rookie. As much as the game has slowed down for him since Thomas Brown took over as play caller, the mental clock wasn’t moving fast enough late in the game as the real clock kept ticking. Williams’ excellent performance in the second half gave the Bears a chance. He’s getting better in those places.

And maybe he has different coaches to better prepare him for those spots.

Every week a new, breathtaking, new way to lose. This included 32 seconds of agony for the Bears, leaving everyone confused and frustrated.

Tick, tick, tick and the countdown is on to make the necessary changes to prevent the Bears from suffering these losses.

(Top photo: Mike Mulholland / Getty Images)