CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears defense delivered. On that side, it was one of the team’s best performances this season.

Just not good enough.

“I guess we should have held them to three or zero points at the end of the day,” safety Kevin Byard said.

Byard and Co. shut out Seattle on Thursday night, limiting Geno Smith and the Seahawks to 265 yards and two field goals from Jason Myers. But Chicago finished with just 179 yards of offense in a 6-3 loss.

The Bears (4-12) became the first NFL team to allow six points or fewer since the Raiders lost 3-0 to the Vikings on Dec. 10, 2023. It was the fourth time in the last 90 seasons that the Bears lost. The franchise lost a game when allowing six or fewer points, losing 6-3 to Tampa Bay on October 24, 1999 and 3 on December 5 :6 against Denver. 1971 and a 3-0 loss to the New York Giants on November 17, 1935.

The defense was expected to help the team in its first season, having selected quarterback Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. But it has struggled lately, contributing to the team’s 10-game losing streak after a 4-2 start.

Chicago had allowed an average of 31 points and 422.6 yards of offense over the last five games.

“Our defense has a certain level and we showed that,” said defenseman Kyler Gordon. “Obviously it goes down a little bit; I just went back at the guys to obviously fix it. It’s just important to know what we can do. Just go in there and run it. We did a lot better today.”

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