The final drive of the Chicago Bears’ tenth loss in a row was really tough, wasn’t it?

Poor clock management. A premature false start. Questionable timeout usage.

A botched snapshot. Coaching indecision. And rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ first interception in 75 days.

It all happened amid an unsettling soundtrack of angry fans chanting at Soldier Field while their team’s potential game-winning or game-winning possession in the final minutes.

Sell ​​the team! Sell ​​the team! Sell ​​the team!

Of course, it was a day or two too late to make any last minute Christmas wishes. And all that frustration didn’t change the final result Thursday night, a 6-3 loss to the run-of-the-mill Seattle Seahawks in a game that ended with a little more confusion and consternation.

It was only the third time in the Super Bowl era that the Bears allowed six or fewer points in a game but lost. These Bears also tied the franchise record for consecutive losses in a season, an abysmal mark of 10 set just two short seasons ago. (Look for the date for Green Bay’s possible record-breaking performance in Week 18.)

But back to the last possession on Thursday night. Because oh, how fitting this sloppiness was to punctuate one of the ugliest games in recent memory, all for the Amazon Prime “Thursday Night Football” audience. Trailing by just three points, the Bears got the ball back at their 11-yard line with 5 minutes, 12 seconds left and all three timeouts still in the bag. Somehow – and this is astonishing – they once again found themselves running out of time.

Ultimately, Williams ended the game with four straight misfires, including a turnover on his final pass with 11 seconds left. When the Seahawks sent a bullseye, Williams backtracked and tried to avoid pressure from safeties Coby Bryant and Julian Love. His answer to that kind of heat, he said, is to target DJ Moore, who is going deep against Devon Witherspoon.

“Knowing they were going to bring the house,” Williams said, “we put as many people as we could to block.” And they only had one other guy running in the back (to the side). I tried fading out and throwing it to the DJ on a runway. He’s one of our fastest guys. And I missed it.”

Unfortunately, Williams was hit by Bryant while throwing. His pass lost its touch and wobbled to Seahawks defensive back Riq Woolen. Game over.

That pick – Williams’ first in 354 attempts – also came after three straight incompletions, all from the Seahawks’ 40-yard line, with the Bears just a few yards out of Cairo Santos’ field goal range. Interim coach Thomas Brown said his target kick line was somewhere between 34 and 37. But instead of starting a running play or looking for a short finish to sneak into Santos’ range, Williams threw the ball away on first down and threw one Deep shot downfield Rome Odunze dove down the right sideline on second down and fired a wild pitch over the middle on third down with no one in particular in sight.

So, uh…yeah.

“We have to be able to execute,” Brown said.

Santos prepared for a potential game-winning free kick if called upon.

“I’m ready for whatever decision they make,” he said. “I think there’s also adrenaline at the end of a game, which can help.”

His chance never came.

Incredibly, the two timeouts the Bears used on their final possession were not used to stop the clock. The first came with 2:14 left after a Jake Curhan false start prevented the Bears from attempting a fourth-down play. Brown initially sent Tory Taylor and the punting unit onto the field and had a good feeling about it. He knew his defense had played well all night and that he still had all the timeouts, plus the two-minute warning to stop the clock.

“I wanted to use Tory as a weapon,” Brown said. “That may have been a chance to flip the field, force a three-pointer and get a shorter field. That was my thought process.”

But then?

“I changed my mind,” Brown said. “I wanted to be more aggressive.”

His change of heart came just before Taylor took a snap for a punt, which he thundered inside the 10-yard line. Instead, a timeout was used and the offense took the stage back.

Despite all the chaos, Williams hit an all-out blitz with a heroic 14-yard completion to Moore on the ensuing fourth down play. And three snaps later, he converted third-and-14 with a 15-yard dart to Rome Odunze.

Odunze made this catch with 1:05 left. But the Bears still had two timeouts and didn’t get their next snap until 37 seconds left. The precious time flew by.

“I got hit in the neck,” Williams said. “And yes. I was hit in the neck. So. Yes.”

A moment later, the quarterback elaborated on that sequence in response to a separate question.

“I don’t know if the coaches saw me,” he said. “Even though I got hit in the throat. And the face. I just have to get up, run down and shoot the ball. So. Yes.”

Brown’s explanation for allowing this move to occur while the clock was running down was simple.

“I was saving (the time off) for the ‘gotta have it’ scenario,” he said.

After the aforementioned first-down throw, the Bears were using their second timeout when a clumsy operation left them at risk for a delay-of-game penalty. Imagine that.

In fact, the entire sequence leading up to the interception that sealed loss No. 12 of the season was downright clunky. Disorganized. Undeniably messy.

“It was chaotic the whole game,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “I thought that was exactly what happened throughout the game. So…”

That’s exactly how this season went.

“It’s hurtful,” Moore added. “We cannot carry this momentum into next year. We have to change something.”

Thursday night’s offensive performance was particularly abysmal. The Bears’ 179 total yards was the fourth time this season they were held under 200.

Williams’ season sack total continued to climb – from 60 at the start of the night to 67 on the final drive. And his bloated sack total on Thursday (46) offered several examples of a young quarterback still not understanding how to minimize damage or get rid of the ball quicker in certain situations.

“I’m definitely going to take the heat,” Williams said, “just because of the situations I put us in.”

The Bears made just one field goal on 10 possessions on Thursday. They averaged just 13 points in their last five games.

Now Thursday night’s performance can segue directly into the exhibition, which encompasses all the failure and misery of the last 61 days, from the 10 insane losses, all of which brought a unique level of ineptitude and excitement.