(670 The Score) Getting pantsed by your rival isn't exactly the most encouraging way to end what turned into a moderately entertaining Bears season, but the good news is that it doesn't matter much.
Or at least it shouldn't, if those running the team are serious about what they do.
The Bears' 17-9 loss to the playoff-bound Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field did show some things, certainly — that Jordan Love is a better quarterback than Justin Fields right now, the resurgent Bears defense is still capable of being shredded, Tyrique Stevenson is a budding star, officials don't care what defenders do to Fields, Luke Getsy is still stepping on his own junk, a team can make the playoffs in what was expected to be a rebuilding year and plenty more.
But what it didn't do was exist as any kind of freestanding referendum on the respective fates of Fields, Bears coaches, the draft picks or any other major decision looming for general manager Ryan Poles, presuming he's safely ensconced in his own position.
The outcome, individual player performances and overall aesthetics were just data points for any professional organization, part of a larger whole to be considered despite the history of the logos on the helmets and the national television platform.
Even adjusting for human nature and recency bias doesn't help us shake off the obvious truth that all three of those aspects were pretty brutal.
Yet the choices are the same as they ever were, on every level.
Be the team that let Fields go for a couple draft picks only to watch him win with better coaching and support or risk being the team that let Caleb Williams land elsewhere and ascend to the highest range of his tantalizing projections?
Keep Matt Eberflus as head coach because he's a decent defensive coordinator and hope he can attract and hire yet another offensive counterpart — one of any professional repute who's willing to work for a boss on less than the most solid ground instead of waiting for his own top job? Or seek something bigger and better for the whole staff?
Move that No. 1 overall pick for the second consecutive year for a massive haul that could facilitate rapid reinfusion of talent for multiple seasons?
They're questions so large as to make another offseason larger and more important and determinative than another season, and the hope is that they finally don't act like the damn Bears. That was the point of hiring Kevin Warren as president, to not do what Ted Phillips would do and seek the lowest level of risk at every possible turn. This is supposed to be a time to finally think beyond old family comforts and quaint personal pleasantries, joining the ruthless business of pursuing championships.
So we wait for Warren and those whose fate he controls. All we really know about him is that he cares about getting a new stadium built and is a huge fan of himself more than anything else — commissioning weird day-in-the-life profiles of his conspicuous piousness and lack of sleep, the unquestioning publication of which is unbecoming of any major media market, let alone this one.
Now it's finally time for him to run an NFL team, instead.
So we'll learn where he and the Bears decide to set the bar. Then we can all see if we need to find the nearest one.
Dan Bernstein is the co-host of the Bernstein & Holmes Show on middays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
