A stunned Chicago Bears locker room asks, “What the hell just happened?” after another last-second loss to the Detroit Lions

DETROIT – For several seconds, Chicago Bears players stood on the field in shock and disbelief after the football stalled in front of Rome Odunze at Ford Field on Thursday.

The Bears trailed by three at the Detroit Lions’ 41-yard line and had 32 seconds left to get closer and set up kicker Cairo Santos for the tying goal.

Somehow, with the timeout remaining, the Bears only had one more play – rookie quarterback Caleb Williams overthrew Odunze near the 3-yard line. The clock has expired. The Bears lost 23-20, the fourth time in their six-game losing streak that they lost in stunning fashion at the end of a game.

And everyone from Williams and Odunze to Lions coach Dan Campbell and Bears coach Matt Eberflus to Bears executives in the back of the press box appeared to pause in utter confusion.

“I saw the Detroit Lions walking down the field and I thought, ‘Damn, (what) are they doing?’ What’s up?’ said wide receiver Keenan Allen. “I didn’t know the time was up. …And then you look up and realize we’re on a break. And it’s like, ‘Ah…'”

“What the hell just happened?” asked tight end Cole Kmet.

“What the hell?” Wide receiver DJ Moore said he asked himself before correcting himself. “No, it was like, what the fuck?”

Bears players were still going over details in a locker room after the game, vacillating between anger and confusion. President Kevin Warren and Chief Administrative Officer Ted Crews stood nearby, watching.

Allen and left guard Teven Jenkins didn’t know the Bears still had a timeout. DJ Moore – and Allen, after he found out – were surprised the Bears didn’t use their timeout when Eberflus realized time had expired on their final play.

Eberflus said in his postgame press conference that the Bears’ plan was for Williams to make a play to the middle of the field and then take a timeout to set up the field goal. But the Bears took too long to settle, and Williams said he changed the play to go to Odunze near the end zone because he realized they didn’t have time to go to the middle of the field and then play a second turn.

“You want it to be called, but at the same time it wasn’t called,” Moore said of the timeout. “I just have to go out and execute.”

There were execution issues throughout the game, particularly on offense. There were problems in the first half as the Bears gained 53 total yards and two first downs and fell behind 16-0 at halftime. And there were plenty of problems on the Bears’ final drive before the final play.

Kmet was called for offensive pass interference on a fourth-and-4 play, but the Bears were able to overcome that thanks to Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor’s fourth-and-14 pass interference penalty.

Two plays later, Jenkins was called for illegal hands to the face – a 10-yard penalty. And Lions defensive lineman Za’Darius Smith got around backup right tackle Larry Borom to sack Williams for a 6-yard loss, giving the Bears third-and-26 on their final play of the game.

Then the clock burned down as the Bears players tried to get back to the line – and the failed play for Odunze, who didn’t make it to the football in time.

“Caleb gave me a pump, but there was more than one high (safety), so it was a difficult coverage to make the play,” Odunze said. “He threw it where there was no safety and I tried to turn my head around but I couldn’t make the play.”

The last 30 seconds also surprised Santos.

He said he felt great all day, having only missed a single shot during his halftime practice. After two blocked field goals in the last two games, he felt the operation was going well and he made both extra point attempts.

But in the end he never got the chance to get on the field.

“I didn’t see that. We rehearse these scenarios and I imagine I can do it,” Santos said. “I know we want to play to win, but I figured I would at least have a chance there. But I don’t know what is the connection between the crime and what led to these events.”

Moore called the way the Bears lost last month “once in a blue moon things.” The Hail Mary against the Washington Commanders, the blocked field goal against the Green Bay Packers, the overtime loss against the Minnesota Vikings and now the mismanagement of the clock that dropped the Bears’ record to 4-8 after starting 4-2 .

“We have to find a way to win,” Moore said. “We keep coming back in these games and we have time to actually win the game and we just shit the bed.”

Several Bears players were careful to acknowledge their role in breaking up the game at the end of the game, not just pointing out Eberflus and the coaching staff’s failure to intervene as the clock ran out. But there were obviously still some questions about how the game ended the way it did.

Kmet said he expects the Bears to take a close look at end-of-game proceedings when they return to Halas Hall to prepare for a Dec. 8 road game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Until then, they’ll be thinking a lot more about how to let someone else get away than they will about their Thanksgiving dinners.

“It was tough,” Allen said. “I feel like we did enough as players to win the game.”