The mind has armor to protect itself from trauma, so it’s possible I’m blocking here. But as I stand amid the wreckage of the 2024 Bears, I’m pretty sure this is the worst season I’ve witnessed from the franchise.
Taken in totality, what the Bears have done is so brutal that I’m not sure any of us who have had the misfortune of watching them will ever recover. Not the fans who showed up at Soldier Field with brown paper bags over their heads in protest of this shameful season. They’ll be in therapy until their last dying breath. Not the people who chanted for the McCaskey family to sell the team. They’ll be dealing with permanent throat damage and permanent disappointment.
What can’t we unsee? Horrible coaching decisions, followed by unyielding and unconvincing rationalizations. Undisciplined players. A few semi-precious stones in the rubble of a bad roster. It’s as if someone up there wanted to see how much a viewing audience could take.
The Bears’ loss to the Seahawks on Thursday night, a 6-3 assault on the senses, was unwatchable. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon Prime announcer Al Michaels renounced his belief in miracles after the game. The remarkable thing about the evening was that, as bad as it was, it was hardly surprising. A season that has included Matt Eberflus’ bizarre in-game decisions, his eventual firing, Tyrique Stevenson’s Hail Mary asshattery, back-to-back games with blocked field-goal attempts and a 10-game losing streak … well, something as awful as the Seahawks game made complete sense. It followed, logically.
Where does that logic take us with one game left, against the hated Packers? I expect some sort of Bears desecration on the 50-yard line at Lambeau Field. Something to do with lighter fluid and a Bronko Nagurski jersey? The mind recoils.
I don’t know how Bears fans can forgive general manager Ryan Poles for this. I don’t know how they can give him a pass for wisely taking quarterback Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft and then going brain dead while deciding who would block for him (no one, apparently). If there’s one lasting image from this season, it’s of Williams in the aftermath of another sack, body slumped, confidence draining from his eyes. It’s too bad the Bears couldn’t have figured out a way to outfit the kid’s uniform with airbags. That Poles allowed all this to happen is worthy of a lawsuit or 10.
Another lasting image of this season is the blank look on the face of a head coach unable to process in real time what’s happening on the field. We saw it when Eberflus left a timeout and a field-goal attempt in his pocket in a terrible, laughingstock loss to the Lions in late November. And we saw it again Thursday, when interim head coach Thomas Brown had late-game issues with indecisiveness and timeouts. Two coaches wandering in the bewilder-ness.
Now, I’m sure old-timers will want to show me their scars from other bad Bears seasons. Many of us witnessed the two-year Marc Trestman “era.’’ We saw back-to-back games of allowing 50-plus points that year and never properly recuperated.
But this season was built on the idea of upward movement. It was built on the idea that the talented Williams would develop, if not quickly then at least steadily. It was built on the sparkle of the skill-position baubles that Poles had given the quarterback. It was built on the promise of a very good defense.
All of it turned out to be fiction.
That’s what makes this season so difficult to swallow and digest. Poles’ miscalculations too often have made Williams’ talents difficult to see, turning what was a slam-dunk draft-day decision into a silly debate about whether the quarterback is actually any good. Poles’ biggest transgression has been exposing Williams to grave danger on every snap. His second-biggest transgression has been exposing Williams to criticism he doesn’t deserve.
If you’ve watched this franchise for any length of time, you’ve likely come to the conclusion that something is fundamentally wrong with it. There’s something defective in its marrow. If you believe, as I do, that this season is the worst ever for the Bears, you also believe that it can get worse, because it always does. Feel free to call that negativity or cynicism. I prefer to call it truth, the unfortunate kind.
The fans at Soldier Field who chanted “Sell the team!” after the terrible loss to the Seahawks knew what they were talking about. They don’t seem to know what to do about it, however. They keep buying tickets to Bears games. They continue to pay good money for their suffering.
The McCaskeys don’t know how to build a winning football team. Why keep rewarding them for it, especially when they refuse to release their grip on the franchise?
Some advice: For the love of all that is good, stop that.