With the situation at the moment looking bleak for the Bears and all of the names being tossed about for head coach by people with absolutely no idea who will really interest the team in the offseason, Caleb Williams stepped up and reminded everyone of something.
The Bears are no normal rebuild as a 4-8 team.
Their NFC North opponents can enjoy their 2024 run to the playoffs but it might not be long before the Bears are challenging for divisional titles and/or playoff spots. At least this is how the Bears interpret their narrow losses.
"I mean, I guess you can look at all these games that we're on a six-game losing streak now and you look at all these games and the past three weeks we've played Detroit, Green Bay and Minnesota and we've been right there with them—offense, defense, special teams, whatever.
"We've been right there with them. And those have been the best teams in the league so far."
A blocked kick separated the Bears from victory over Green Bay, a miracle comeback against Minnesota ended in overtime defeat and the last-second debacle in Detroit landed them a 23-20 loss with Matt Eberflus being fired.
The Bears would like to think it was Eberflus holding them back. They'll find out, starting this week.
Under Eberflus in the last three seasons, they had a .208 record in one-score games. The 33rd Team tabulated the other teams' winning percentages in one-score games and found no one else was even close to the Bears' futility in those cases.
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Jacksonville was next at .333, Arizona .350, Carolina .368 and Denver .370.
The Bears are 2-6 in them this year, a step up over other years.
The miserable losses to struggling New England and by blowout at Arizona compounded their six-game losing streak.
It is easy to see they aren't far away. However, plenty of teams feel this and never arrive.
At least they can be thankful for the fact the narrow defeats haven't mentally beaten down Williams.
Williams saw the tight losses as a sign there is no real split in the locker room, as some have suggested.
"So I think we fight," Williams said. "I think a team with this record and the things that have gone down, if there was a division, necessarily a heavy split between the team, I think we wouldn't be fighting the way we do at the end of games, during games, whatever the case may be.
"Obviously, there are things we need to fix, things we're going to fix to get rolling. And it starts with everything (Thomas Brown) said with accountability and unifying and all these different things. And so I think that's kind of where I feel the team is at."
The Bears don't feel it's a personnel issue as much as taking the next step—although that might require a few additions.
"For so long, we always talked about how talented this roster is and obviously to lose four close games, obviously that shows," defensive end DeMarcus Walker said. "And three out of the four arguably were the best in the NFL. So, obviously we know we can go toe to toe with any team. But it's the details to iron out, from top to bottom."
The standings don't carry places for near wins or overtime losses or Hail Mary defeats or blocked kick losses or even losses due to lack of details.
If they did, the Bears might be in the Almost Super Bowl.
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"I do understand that our record doesn't say how we fight and it doesn't say all of these different things," Williams said. "But when you go watch those games and you watch this team, we fight all the way to the end.
"And so us being together, us fighting and all of that is just going to keep growing. And I can't wait."
They'll have to wait until next year again, because they're only one more tight or lopsided loss or a Washington win from being eliminated.
