Trailing by three with a timeout, 30 seconds to go and the ball at the Lions' 41-yard line, the Bears only managed one more play: a failed deep shot as time expired in Detroit's 23-20 win. Despite the debacle, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, who was calling the shots on the sideline, said, "I like what we did there."
The plan, Eberflus said, was to run a play to get into field goal range, call a timeout and attempt the game-tying field goal. The offensive line was set at 13 seconds, but Caleb Williams changed the call at the line and didn't get it off until six seconds remained. He went deep for Rome Odunze, missed and the game was over.
"We liked the play that we had and we were hoping that he was going to call it, or get the ball snapped and then we would’ve called timeout right (after)," Eberflus said.
Williams said he adjusted the play "because I saw the clock running down and knowing that if we complete a ball inbounds, we won’t have time to kick a field goal or anything like that." He added later, "Well, you had a timeout, but with that situation, 13 seconds, make a call and try to get it snapped and take the shot.”
Asked how they should have handled the sequence in retrospect, Eberflus said, "I think we handled it the right way. I do believe that you just re-rack the play, get it in bounds and call timeout, and that’s why we held it. Didn't work out the way we wanted it to.”
Eberflus said he had to hold his timeout once the clock dipped under 12 seconds because, without one, there wouldn't have been enough time for the Bears to run a play and get the kicking unit on the field. At that point, they would have been forced to throw to the end zone on the final play. Of course, that's what wound up happening anyway.
Williams said the Bears will live with the result because taking a shot was "the right decision."
"As we always say, you can always hold that clicker and press pause or slow-mo, but the right decision is, if I hit that play to Rome it would be a different conversation in here," he said. "You can’t always make the right play, you’ve got to make a decision and go with it.”
Dan Campbell, from his perspective, said he didn't expect the game to end the way that it did, "but I’ll take it."
"I did feel like we were going to make a stand. I didn’t see it happening in that way, but you get in those type of games and those situations and you’re just trying to play off of them, do the best you can," he said.
As the time ticked down, Campbell said he was thinking in his own head, "Do we need to use a timeout? Give yourself a chance to answer back if they tie it? But if you don’t, now you allow them more time to score a touchdown and win the game. You’re going through all these scenarios."
"I was just proud of the way the defense held," Campbell said. "I felt good about us doing it, holding, I just didn’t know how it was going to play out.”
Campbell, in his fourth season in Detroit, has the Lions atop the NFC at 11-1. Eberflus has lost six games in a row in his third season in Chicago and could be on the outs. Whatever the circumstances, Campbell was happy with Thursday's win, which snapped the Lions' seven-game skid on Thanksgiving.
"That’s a good win against an opponent that has fought every week, and this was the third game in a row, division game, that those guys have brought it over there," Campbell said. "We did what we had to do to win. We’ll clean up the other stuff that cost us some points. I’m not worried about that. But I will take this 'W' and I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”