The Bears’ unpleasant history keeps repeating itself. Three years ago, they were on a five-game losing streak when an erroneous Patch.com report that then-coach Matt Nagy had been pre-fired spun them sideways before their Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions.
Halas Hall was equally grim Monday, with coach Matt Eberflus pointing to growth that’s mostly invisible to anyone but him. Meanwhile, veterans such as wide receiver DJ Moore and cornerback Jaylon Johnson vented frustration about the way a season that started with great ambition went off the rails under his direction.
It’s a bad vibe as the Bears prepare to visit the Lions, the best team in the NFL, on Thursday. They’re on a five-game slide again, and there’s no telling when — or if — they’ll pull out of it.
Johnson was so down that he was relatively unmoved by the Bears’ one source of optimism: the rapidly improving play of rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.
He bristled when he was asked whether that gave him hope and replied, ‘‘You talking about this year or the future?’’
The question was about 2025 and beyond, of course, because the Bears aren’t going anywhere this season at 4-7.
‘‘I don’t do all the hopes and dreams and all that,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘We’re in a slump. I’ve been in slumps five years in a row now.
‘‘I don’t look for, ‘What’s going to be better in the future?’ [Expletive]. It’ll be better when it’s better.’’
Eberflus isn’t making it better.
The latest loss, 30-27 defeat Sunday to the Vikings in overtime, dropped him to 14-31 and was rife with examples of the mismanagement that has undercut a promising roster.
His worst miscue came on a critical fourth-and-four in the third quarter, when poor communication about whether the Bears were going for it or kicking a field goal led to confusion and the offense hurrying to snap the ball while running the wrong play.
‘‘That was just a ‘What is going on?’ moment that we could have avoided,’’ Moore said.
That’s coming from a veteran and team captain, but even Williams recognizes the dysfunction. While he talked through the chaotic sequence without smearing his coach, his matter-of-fact commentary (‘‘You don’t really want to run up against the clock’’) and referring to the play as one that ‘‘I didn’t necessarily want to run’’ made you wonder which thoughts he had filtered out.
Each of the Bears’ five consecutive losses has featured ‘‘What is going on?’’ moments from Eberflus.
After the game against the Packers ended on a blocked field goal, coach Matt LaFleur said his staff expected it all week because they saw flaws in the Bears’ blocking. Why didn’t Eberflus see it first? And why didn’t he ensure it was corrected before playing the Vikings, who blocked the Bears’ very next attempt by powering through the middle of their line?
‘‘We just have to do a better job there,’’ he said, repeating what has become his answer for everything lately.
Shouldn’t that have been a top priority after it cost them a game?
‘‘It was emphasized,’’ he insisted.
It gets worse. Brace yourself for his explanation of his unsuccessful challenge on the Vikings’ first play of the second half, a 69-yard pass from Sam Darnold to Jordan Addison. Eberflus hoped to get about 30 yards back if the replay showed Addison had stepped out of bounds.
‘‘First of all, I threw the challenge flag because it was an explosive [play],’’ said Eberflus, who is 0-for-4 on challenges this season and 2-for-9 in his coaching career. ‘‘It’s always warranted to challenge when you’ve got that big of a gain. . . . It’s worth it even if we don’t have the best look that we want to have.’’
That’s not how it works. The challenge flag isn’t some magical eraser for a play gone horribly wrong.
The decisions have been bad, and — somehow — the explanations have been worse.
