The Bears’ interim coach says there was “no confusion” in the timeout-wasting sequence: “I just changed my mind.”

The Chicago Bears’ 6-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday was sealed by a Caleb Williams interception, but there was a sequence early in the game that showed the team was truly lost.

With 5:12 left in the game, the Bears got the ball back and had a chance to either tie the game or take the lead. They could also afford a three-pointer since they still had all three timeouts. The worst that could happen was that the journey would eat up several minutes of time without gaining many meters.

As anyone who knows the Bears this season could have predicted, that final scenario came true.

After a run up the middle gave Chicago its first down with 4:17 left, Williams tried to reach second-and-2 and then the wheels fell off. A pass to Keenan Allen and another to Williams moved the ball just one yard as it ate up more than a minute after halftime. Now there were just 2:12 left and the Bears faced a quarter-and-inch on their own 38-yard line.

Chicago went for it, but a false start by right guard Jake Curhan led to a fourth and fifth goal. Therefore, interim coach Thomas Brown decided to send the punt team. And then he took his first timeout of the half. And then you send the offense out again.

Fortunately, Williams made a great play, perhaps his best of the game, with a running throw to a covered DJ Moore, but the Bears’ final tally on the previous two plays was two minutes and three seconds, a crucial timeout and negative 4 yards. The time between the third and fourth down alone cost them a full 40 seconds.

The result of this four-down game was a sustained drive for the Bears as well as a commitment. They were still in their own territory with 2:05 left.

Incredibly, this wasn’t even the only wasted timeout of the drive, as the Bears lined up for 2nd-and-10 when they were finally in Seattle territory, burning their second part of the half after some confusion at the line of scrimmage.

Williams was visibly frustrated as he walked to the sideline as the crowd at Soldier Field let out boos at the ongoing time management disaster.

What’s notable is that the Bears were able to score a field goal from about 58 yards from the 40-yard range, which would have marked a long career for kicker Cairo Santos. Brown went for the first down.

The Bears didn’t get another first down as Williams threw an incomplete pass on third down and then threw the interception on fourth-and-10 to end the lowest-scoring game of the 2024 NFL season. It was the Bears’ 10th straight loss and their final home game of the season.

When asked if he wasted his first timeout to retire the punt team, Brown denied that there was any confusion and then explained his thought process in a rather confusing way:

Brown responded to a follow-up question about why he changed his mind by saying, “I just wanted to be more aggressive.”

That won’t exactly exonerate Brown in the eyes of Bears fans. However, it’s fair to say that most of them will probably just look the other way at this point. There is one more game on Chicago’s schedule: next Sunday, an away game against the Green Bay Packers