CHICAGO — A month after time management issues against the Detroit Lions led to the firing of coach Matt Eberflus, the Chicago Bears sealed their 10th straight loss when timeout problems and no attempt on a potential field goal attempt led to a 3: 6 defeats resulted in the Seattle Seahawks.

Thursday’s matchup between the Seahawks and Bears was one of two NFL games this season without a touchdown. Chicago totaled 179 yards on offense, its fourth-fewest output in 2024, and only made one field goal in its final home game of the season.

Similar to the Bears’ loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving, Chicago entered the final round with three setbacks. The Bears recovered the ball at their own 11-yard line with 5:12 left in the fourth quarter, with all three timeouts.

Chicago completed six plays before making a quarter-and-inch breakthrough from its own 39-yard line when left guard Jake Curhan, starting in place of the injured Teven Jenkins (calf), was warned for a false start.

The Bears were in punt formation when interim coach Thomas Brown used his team’s first timeout with 2:14 left. A situation that appeared to be the result of confusion on the sideline was the side effect of Brown’s decision to be more aggressive.

“There was no confusion at all,” Brown said. “I just changed my mind. I think we were able to use Tory (Taylor) as a weapon and we still had, I think it was 2:16 on the clock, still had our three timeouts plus the two minutes.” Warning: The manner , the way our defense played all day, we might have a chance to flip the field and force the three-pointer, get a shorter field and kind of make a final drive at the end of the game. That was my thought process.

“As time went on, I changed my mind and said, ‘Let’s try it now,’ and sent the offense back to the field.”

Quarterback Caleb Williams connected with receiver DJ Moore on the ensuing fourth-and-5 play for a 14-yard gain. The Bears ran one more play after the two-minute warning and allowed 45 seconds to elapse before rookie Rome Odunze gained 15 yards on third-and-14, moving the Bears into Seattle territory.

But Chicago failed to advance the ball beyond the Seahawks’ 40-yard line, and another one-score loss would end in similarly confusing fashion.

Williams said he was hit in the throat by Seattle’s pass rush after throwing a deep ball to Odunze. An additional 38 seconds passed between the start of the game and Chicago’s next first down play.

“I don’t know if the coaches down there saw me after the big finale in Rome,” Williams said. “Even though I got hit in the neck and face, I just had to get up, run down and shoot the ball.”

In the end, the Bears used their second timeout on second-and-10 from the Seattle 40-yard line, and a frustrated Williams was seen yelling toward the sideline.

Just like in Detroit, the Bears needed a field goal to tie the score and crossed the 50-yard line with 1:05 left. After losing 83 seconds of game time, Chicago failed to score a field goal.

Brown confirmed that kicker Cairo Santos’ kick line was between 34 and 37 yards.

After reaching the Seattle 40-yard line, the Bears threw four consecutive passes, the last of which resulted in Williams throwing his first interception after throwing 353 passes without a turnover (fourth-most passes in the history of the NFL).

“I think, of course, there are times where you can make a better decision, want a better decision, things like that, but we didn’t implement it,” Williams said. “I haven’t played this game much and that’s frustrating. But I had to find a way.”

After the game, several Bears players described a chaotic feeling on the sideline as Chicago used two of its three timeouts in situations where the offense couldn’t get the ball closer to field goal range.

“There were a few wrinkles in there,” Moore said. “That one time when it went all the way down and we really didn’t know what to do. But at the end of the day, shoot, that’s on us. We have to stay prepared the whole game and that’s what I mean.”, that’s all I can say.