Hail Mary aside, plenty wrong with Bears in pitiful 18-15 loss to Commanders

LANDOVER, Md. — The Bears nearly stole the ugliest of road victories Sunday before falling apart on what might prove to be the most unbelievable play of the NFL season.

After taking their first lead of the game in the final minute against the Commanders, they lost 18-15 in the final second as quarterback Jayden Daniels launched a desperate heave into a crowd at the goal that bounced to wide receiver Noah Brown for a game-winning 52-yard touchdown pass.

It was a painful way to lose, and the Bears will have to relive it for a long time — that highlight isn’t going away anytime soon.

But don’t be distracted by the viral video of the Commanders swarming the field to celebrate a shocking finish. The Bears spent all afternoon losing this game. Although they misplayed their Hail Mary defense, there was plenty wrong in the first 59 minutes.

Quarterback Caleb Williams rode a wave from elation to devastation as he watched Daniels’ pass take flight at the end, but he claimed he wasn’t hung up on the Commanders beating the Bears on a prayer.

“There’s frustration because I could’ve played better,” Williams said. “We could’ve played better offensively throughout the whole game to put ourselves in better position. And we will.”

That’s a big promise that might eventually be true. But for now, these are the real Bears — a team still under construction on both sides of the ball, with a rookie quarterback who isn’t yet good enough to compensate for their shortcomings. It was fun for them to pretend the last three games, when they rolled over some of the NFL’s worst teams, but they left the shallow end of the pool Sunday and immediately sank. Coming out of their bye week, they were sloppy, which led to them being exposed by a coach, an offensive coordinator and a quarterback they bypassed over the last few years: Dan Quinn, Kliff Kingsbury and Daniels.

The Bears allowed 481 yards and 6.7 yards per carry. They couldn’t contain Daniels, who threw for 326 yards and ran for 65. There were significant lapses on defense, offset by some timely stops on third down.

The offense was nonexistent most of the game, went backward in squandering a few scoring opportunities and didn’t reach the red zone until midway through the fourth quarter. Williams completed just 10 of 24 passes for 131 yards and finished with a 59.5 passer rating. The Bears went 2-for-12 on third downs.

“To obsess over the result is a little immature,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “There’s a lot that we can get better at.”

The defeat dredged up many of the things the Bears wanted to believe they had moved past, the most crushing recurrence being some perplexing play-calling from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. For all their failures, the Bears still had a golden opportunity to take the lead with six minutes left on a third-and-goal from the Commanders’ 1-yard line. Waldron called for a handoff to backup offensive lineman Doug Kramer, who was lined up at fullback. He and Williams fumbled the exchange for a deadly turnover.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of questions about the Doug Kramer play,” coach Matt Eberflus said.

Thousands, starting with: Why?

Why, when the Bears are paying nearly $50 million for Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, D’Andre Swift and Kmet and have two top-10 picks in Williams and Rome Odunze, are they giving the ball to an offensive lineman with the game on the line?

Why aren’t there 10 better choices?

Why didn’t Eberflus veto the play when he heard it in his headset?

“It’s a one-yard play,” he said. “We felt a big guy like that taking a dive could do that.”

It turned out to be a pretty important yard. What’s Daniels’ Hail Mary worth if he’s down 10 points?

It’s scary if this is what the Bears will look like against good opponents — a ton of which are coming up. It’ll take tremendous and unforeseen improvement to keep the Bears afloat this season.

That could come from Williams, although he certainly regressed Sunday. It’s hard to discern exactly how much of a step backward this was, given how unreliable the Bears’ offensive line was, but Williams criticized his own throwing accuracy, and Eberflus said he strayed from his progressions.

The Bears are counting on him to become a transcendent quarterback who can make up for anything they’re missing, but that’s not who he is seven games into his career. That’s a ton to ask of a rookie. The Bears also didn’t plan on needing that right away. General manager Ryan Poles and Eberflus believed they had put everything in place to give Williams margin as he grows.

But that’s always how it feels going into training camp. Everything looks good on paper. A lot of teams hit the grass with playoff dreams.

The season has a way of testing those expectations. All the Bears can say at this point is they’re better than the bottom feeders. It’s a huge step from there into actual contention, and they aren’t ready.