Typically, it's difficult to summarize all that is wrong with a team headed in the wrong direction over the course of a season.
It's a four-month marathon with ups, downs, twists and turns, and encapsulating everything in a tidy package can be a stretch, especially in a space as limited as this.
But the 2020 version of the Bears that took the field Sunday at Soldier Field in a likely win-or-else game against the lowly Detroit Lions packaged it all for you to see in the final half of the fourth quarter, and it's easily summarized here.
It had been seven weeks since the Bears (5-7) scored first in a game. That happened in their last victory, way back in Week 6 at Carolina. Not only did they score first Sunday, they mounted an impressive drive at the end of the second quarter to carry a 23-13 lead into halftime. The last time the Bears scored that many points in the first half was in Week 3 of the 2019 season at Washington.
Things looked good heading into the fourth quarter. Rookie tight end Cole Kmet caught an 11-yard touchdown pass off a play fake to stake the Bears to a 30-20 lead with 11:23 remaining. Then Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford somehow stuck a pass intended for tight end T.J. Hockenson right into the hands of Bears nose tackle Bilal Nichols for the unlikeliest interception.
Bears ball at the Lions 46-yard line with 9:22 remaining? It looked like they would end a five-game losing streak, would return to .500 on an afternoon when the seventh seed in the NFC playoff picture, the Arizona Cardinals, lost for the fourth time in five games and would at least change the vibe at Halas Hall for a week.
Suddenly, everything that is wrong with the Bears — and everything that will be difficult, if not impossible, to fix in one offseason — came crashing down on them.
