In Bears interim coach Thomas Brown’s bid for his next job, which likely will be with another team, the final sequence of his 6-3 loss to the Seahawks on Thursday will require a better explanation than the one he gave after the game.
Needing a field goal to tie the game, the Bears got the ball at their own 11-yard line with 5:12 left and all three timeouts, but there appeared to be little urgency and Brown used two timeouts in situations where he shouldn’t have.
On fourth-and-inches at their own 39-yard line, the Bears were going for it when backup left guard Jake Curhan committed a false start that made it fourth-and-five. Brown sent out the punting unit with 2:14, but changed his mind before the snap and called timeout to send the offense back to the field.
“It wasn’t confusion at all,” Brown said. “I just changed my mind… Over the course of that, I changed my mind and said, ‘Let’s go for it now,’ and sent the offense back on the grass.”
When asked what changed his mind, he replied, “I wanted to be more aggressive.”
Little about the Bears’ approach looked aggressive as chunks of time disappeared on the final possession. After a one-yard pass from their own 44-yard line coming out of the two-minute warning, the Bears didn’t snap their next play until 1:15 left on the clock.
They got a 15-yarder on that play, but then didn’t run another one until 37 seconds remaining. Williams threw the ball away out of bounds on that play, then, with the clock already stopped, needed a timeout to avoid a delay-of-game penalty.
At the end, Brown said the Bears needed to get to the Seahawks’ 37-yard line or deeper to consider kicking a field goal to tie the game, but opted to throw on first, second an third down at the 40-yard line rather than try a couple run plays to get in range for kicker Cairo Santos. He attributed that decision to the Seahawks’ defensive formation.
The Bears went for it on fourth-and-10 with 20 seconds left on their final play, and Seahawks blitzing safety Coby Bryant got to Williams immediately, and he threw an interception to end the game.