Final Word: Sunday's butt kicking proved the Chicago Bears won't be fixed quickly
If there was any doubt about what happened to the Chicago Bears today, just take the word of the two men who took to the podium after the 38-13 loss Sunday.
"We got our butts kicked," Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown said.
"We got our ass kicked today," Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said. "There’s no way around it."
A straight-up, old-fashioned and swift butt kickin' wasn't exactly what the Bears had in mind for the first game following the end of the Matt Eberflus era. It was shocking because of how bad it sunk at one point, but wasn't too shocking in the end.
San Francisco didn't come into Sunday's game as a usual 5-7 team. Last year's Super Bowl runners-ups were missing All-Pro players, but still had head coach Kyle Shanahan. The offensive mastermind Bears fans wish would turn heel and take residence in Chicago nearly tripled the Bears' offensive output at the end of the game.
At halftime, the Bears only had four total yards. The 49ers had, well, much, much more than four. Those four yards is the Bears fewest in a first half in this millennium, according to analytics website TruMedia.
Yikes.
The age-old idiom "Rome wasn't built in one day" is often used as a reminder that the best things take time to build. It's a perfect idiom for sports.
A championship team, let alone a contending team or a successful one, doesn't just come together quickly.
Promoting Brown to head honcho wasn't going to magically fix the sluggish offensive starts, the inconsistent offensive line play or the struggles on the defensive side of the ball overnight. There's more work to be done.
Sunday was a brutal reminder that Brown's job isn't to completely fix this team in five weeks, but to see how much he can get done in that amount of time.
"I'm not making excuses," Brown said. "Whether I have a week or I have five months, the goal is to win football games. We didn't win."
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 08: Head coach Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers and interim head coach Thomas Brown of the Chicago Bears meet after the game at Levi's Stadium on December 08, 2024 in Santa Clara, California. The San Francis
The only thing that was lacking from Sunday's loss that would've felt all too familiar was a heartbreaking last-second loss that would leave Bears fans and players playing the "what if?" game for hours after. None of that applied today; It would've taken many plays to change Sunday's outcome instead of the few.
The players after the game had similar answers compared to the last few weeks, though. After all, the sluggish offense remained.
"When we start fast, we stay in the game," Bears wide receiver DJ Moore said. "I don't know what's not clicking, but we need to get it going."
The Bears finished with 162 total yards, gaining 158 of those in the second half, and Williams again showed he can make NFL-style throws that maybe one or two past Bears quarterbacks have been able to make. His first touchdown to Rome Odunze was a pinpoint toss to a leaping Odunze, who made a fantastic effort to land in bounds and score.
It was your weekly glimmer of hope. The Bears still lost, failing to overcome a terrible start.
"We don't come out here trying to be flat," offensive lineman Braxton Jones said. "There's guys all around this locker room trying to make a difference and it's just not the outcome we're getting."
The one player who made the most difference on Sunday was linebacker TJ Edwards. Double-digit tackles, a pass break up, a sack and multiple tackles for loss showed how consistent and talented Edwards is when he plays with the energy every Bear should have.
"We just didn't execute, that's on everybody," Edwards said. "They made more plays than we did."
Now, it's back to the drawing board.
The Bears get an extra day to rest and prep. They'll play Minnesota on Monday Night Football next week, the same Vikings that ripped the Bears' hearts out in overtime two weeks ago and dropped 42 points on the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday.
It's another week where Brown gets to try and take a step further in making his corrections on something that'll need an offseason to fix.
"We’ll always be straightforward, honest and open about things that transpired," Brown said. "But, we got to do a better job of putting together a better game plan on both sides of the ball so we can execute better and obviously challenge our guys to be at their best and also encourage those guys and also demand that we still stay unified. This is a grown man’s business."