The Bears’ hilariously bad 4th down call is captured in perfect photo

The Bears’ terrible 4th down call baffled everyone, including players.

Optimism was riding high for the Chicago Bears entering the season thanks to the miraculous offseason arrival of No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. The Bears earned the first pick in the draft thanks to their brilliant 2023 trade with the Carolina Panthers, and set up Williams with perhaps the best supporting cast for a top pick in league history. The Bears had an emerging defense, they had a loaded wide receiver core, and Williams would be the QB to finally tie it all together.

It’s never as easy as it sounds, is it? The Bears fell to 1-2 on the young season after a devastating Week 3 defeat against the Indianapolis Colts in a game Chicago had every opportunity to win. Williams threw for 363 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions in the win on a stunning 52 passing attempts. The Bears’ rookie QB had some tremendous flashes, but Chicago still couldn’t win on a day when Anthony Richardson and the Colts offense consistently failed to do anything with the football.

Coaching is the big issue in Chicago after the 21-16 loss to the Colts. The Bears retained Matt Eberflus for a third season coming into the year despite dubious results in his first two, and this loss now drops his head coaching record to 11-26 overall. Eberflus is in charge of a very good defense and newly hired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was supposed to help fix the other side of the ball. Waldron came from Seattle with a good reputation, but it’s becoming clear he’s completely losing the plot as the Bears’ OC.

Trailing 7-0 late in the second quarter, Chicago had a gigantic meltdown on the goal line, turning the ball over on downs after starting with 1st-and-Goal from the Indianapolis 4-yard-line. Chicago ran the ball out of shotgun four straight times, and got stuffed with each attempt. On fourth day, Waldron called a baffling speed option that ended with running back D’Andre Swift getting tackled for a loss of 12 yards.

The play was horrible, but this photo is art.

Running a speed option from the two-yard-line makes no sense. The fact that the Bears tried it with an objectively terrible offensive line and a struggling running back makes it even wilder. By the time Swift got the pitch, four of his offensive linemen were already on the ground. You can’t make this up.

The entire goal line sequence from the Bears was just awful. You can watch it in its entirety here, including the awful fourth down call.

Running out of shotgun on the goal line is bad, and doing it four times in a row is even worse. Why not trust your franchise QB to throw it into the end zone? Waldron has been twisting his brain into knots through the start of this season, and this play will serve as the main example of why Chicago will need to fire him after the year if the offense doesn’t turn it around.

A couple Bears players were hinting at frustration with the playcalling after their Week 2 loss to the Texans. They couldn’t even hide it after losing to the Colts:

The Bears’ running has been absolutely awful so far this season. Swift is being used as the primary back, and his averaging less than two yards per carry. What was Waldron thinking?

Reporters and analysts watching the game couldn’t believe the Bears really tried an option run on fourth down.

The Bears were finally supposed to have a good offense with Williams at QB, but instead they are as lifeless as ever. Williams isn’t the problem: he’s getting killed behind a bad offensive line, and his OC isn’t scheming anyone open.

The Colts were highly beatable in Week 3, and the Bears couldn’t get the job done. All that preseason optimism has been destroyed over the course of just three weeks. Stay patient, though, Bears fans: Caleb Williams is going to be very good. It’s just a shame the team probably needs to pair him with an all-new coaching staff going into his second season, just as the team did with failed first round picks Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields.