Thomas Brown became the Bears’ interim head coach when Matt Eberflus was fired following disastrous game management decisions at the end of a Chicago loss. On Thursday night, Brown had some questionable decisions of his own on the Bears’ final drive.
With the Bears trailing 6-3 and facing fourth-and-inches with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter, they lined up to go for it but were flagged for a false start. That brought up a fourth-and-5, and Brown sent the punting team out. But Brown then called a timeout and sent the offense back on the field to convert the first down.
The Bears picked up the first down, but burning a timeout late in a close game is never a good look from a head coach. Brown was asked after the game why there was confusion from the Bears about whether they should punt or go for it.
“It wasn’t confusion at all, I just changed my mind,” Brown said. “I changed my mind and said Let’s go for it now and sent the offense back on the grass.”
Whether confusion or changing his mind, the result was Brown blowing a timeout at a time in the game when the Bears should have been conserving their timeouts.
The good news for the Bears was that they converted the fourth-and-5 after sending the offense back on the field, and then drove into long field goal range at the Seahawks’ 40-yard line. Unfortunately, after an incomplete pass the Bears wasted yet another timeout while the clock was stopped. Brown said he just wanted to get the right play call in.
“Just being able to have cleaner communication, getting out of the huddle, snap the ball faster,” Brown said. “We didn’t want to waste plays. Have a timeout from a delay of game standpoint, so that was the whole reason for burning a timeout.”
The Bears’ drive ended with four straight passes after getting the ball to the 40-yard line, the last of which was intercepted on fourth down, ending the Bears’ chances. Brown was asked why he didn’t trust his kicker to make a 58-yard field goal, but he said he thought the long end of field goal range was a 52- to 55-yard field goal so he had to go for it.
Brown was also asked why the Bears didn’t run the ball to try to get a few more yards to get into field goal range, and he said his play calling was based on the way the Seahawks were playing zero coverage.
Brown’s answers didn’t inspire a lot of confidence that he understands how to properly manage a late-game situation the way a head coach needs to. The Bears will soon be searching for a head coach who can do what neither Eberflus nor Brown did, and put Caleb Williams into a better position to win in those situations.
