Final Word: What's more heartbreaking than the Chicago Bears' OT loss? The difference in the game

CHICAGO - It's difficult to describe the mood in the Chicago Bears locker room on Sunday.

It wasn't like last week, where some players like Darnell Wright just sat at their lockers and stared into space after the blocked field goal doomed the Bears.

It wasn't resignation or acceptance, either. The Bears, losers of five straight games, displayed a mixture of emotions. The frustration was there, but so was the thrill of scoring 11 points in 22 seconds to force overtime.

The Bears lost in yet another heartbreaking fashion on Sunday, this time staging a comeback against one of the best teams in the NFC only to fall 30-27 in overtime. That comeback was encouraging to many – as it should be – but it also highlights the most heartbreaking aspect of Sunday's loss.

I asked around the locker room. What's the difference in an overtime loss like Sunday? The answers varied, some were more specific than others, but the bottom line is the Bears just weren't good enough again.

After everything they did to go up early in the game, get back into it and tie it, the Bears were not good enough in the end.

"We put ourselves in the situation to win it and we don't finish," Bears offensive lineman Matt Pryor said. "That's what makes it a lot worse, feel a lot worse, is when you come back and put yourself in a situation to win and you don't get the job done."

The Bears had plenty of highlights. This included, but is not limited to, a magical scramble throw for 30-yards to D'Andre Swift, a goal line turnover forced and recovered by Jonathan Owens, a last-second comeback, a successful onside kick, a Cairo Santos redemption arc, breakout games for both DJ Moore and Keenan Allen and Montez Sweat breaking his sack drought.

All of that sent the game to overtime. That still wasn't good enough to win.

It makes the mistakes that did happen loom larger.

Those mistakes include, but aren't limited to, seven penalties for 80 yards, a muffed punt that led to a touchdown, a stagnant offense between the second and third quarters, another blocked field goal, the decision to go for a two-point conversion instead of take the extra point to make it a seven-point game in the fourth quarter, a 69-yard pass play to Jordan Addison to start the third quarter and the defense struggling to get off the field in multiple third and long situations. 

"When you talk about these close games, the teams that do right longer tend to win the games," Bears safety Kevin Byard said. "Clearly, in most of these games that are being lost towards the end. Their team is just making more plays than we are towards the end of the game."

At the end of the game, the Bears had the ball twice.

The first was the Bears sending the game to overtime on a 48-yard field goal by Santos. The second was a possession in overtime that went backwards thanks to a false start flag and a sack.

A drive to the end zone there would have ended the game. Instead, the Bears punted the ball and never got it back.

"It's a tough loss just because you get the ball in overtime, you don't go and seal the deal," Williams said. "I like to pride myself on two minutes and things like that. I like to pride myself on being able to provide efficient drives. That's not what happened today." 

Still, you can't deny the "it" factor Williams displayed. He never threw in the towel. He led the offense to multiple fourth quarter scores. He needed to hit DJ Moore on a route over the middle to set up the tying field goal, and got 27 yards to the Vikings' 30-yard line.

Williams was infectious. When he goes, the offense follows. When he's decisive, the offense moves. 

Williams wowed plenty and proved he's the kind of player that can strike life into even the most lifeless Bears' moments.

"Never say die," Bears long snapper Scott Daly said. "You never know what's going to happen and you always got to stay focused, stay locked in and it just takes one or two plays, get you back in the game and. That's exactly what happened."

The fact the Bears followed his lead was encouraging.

"You don't want to be around people that are quitting, giving up," Williams said. "That's not the type of guys we have. That's encouraging. I think we got better on offense. We've gotten better over these past couple games. I think today was a testament to that, being decisive, receivers and everybody, things like that. It's tough."

As better as the Bears have gotten in the last couple weeks compared to the debacle of a loss to New England, Sunday was still another heartbreaker.

It's almost if the Bears need a lucky bounce or two to go with that improvement.

"We're losing in the most unreal situations," Moore said. "Now it's like luck has gotta go in our favor at some point."

Lady Luck can have some influence. It's why the saying " sometimes you'd rather be lucky than good" exists.

But you can't count on luck.

The 2024 Bears can't assume anything will go their way, especially after the last five weeks.

The Bears need to play a complete game to finally get things to go their way. Sunday was a brutal reminder of how difficult it is and how heartbreaking it is when it's that close, but ultimately slips away.

"We left some plays out there which we wish we could've had," Owens said. "It's NFL, man. Guys are going to make plays, guys are going to make catches, man. It's one of those things where you want it to go your way, but we just gotta keep getting better, man. That's all we can do."