Bears' Keenan Allen: 'I Feel Like We Did Enough as Players' to Beat Lions

Thursday was another game and another questionable coaching performance for the Chicago Bears, and Keenan Allen wasn't about to take responsibility for it on behalf of his teammates.

"I feel like we did enough as players to win the game," he told reporters after a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions.

Chicago was driving into position to potentially win the game on the final possession, but Caleb Williams took a sack with 32 seconds remaining. Head coach Matt Eberflus didn't call the team's final timeout and watched as the offense failed to snap the ball until there were merely seconds remaining.

That meant Williams had to throw up a desperation pass at the end, which fell incomplete.

"You got to talk to the people who control those things," Allen said of possibly calling timeout. "I hear the play, line up and run the play. I don't know."

Williams, who is a rookie, echoed Allen's sentiments when he told reporters, "In that situation, I'm living with the call and letting coaches make that decision … maybe in the later years of my career (he may call a timeout himself), right now I get the call and I'm trying to lead my team to a win."

It seemed like the Bears were going to get blown out when they managed just two first downs in the entire first half and went into intermission with a 16-0 deficit. Yet they closed the gap to 23-7 after three quarters but pulled within three with touchdown passes from Williams to Allen and DJ Moore.

The good news for Chicago is Williams impressed while throwing for 256 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions and running for 39 more yards. He was much better in the second half than the first and now has five touchdowns to zero interceptions in the last two games.

However, the bad news for Chicago is Eberflus is still the head coach after yet another questionable performance.

This is the same team that lost to the Washington Commanders and Green Bay Packers on the final play of each game in part because of poor coaching. Against the Commanders, the Bears decided not to guard the sidelines on the penultimate play, which gave the NFC East team an easy completion to set up what proved to be the winning Hail Mary.

They also didn't bring any pressure on the Hail Mary, allowing the receivers to get downfield for the shocking play.

It also didn't help the Bears' case that they gave a goal-line handoff to a backup offensive lineman just to watch him fumble earlier in that game, although then-offensive coordinator Shane Waldron has since been fired.

As for the Packers game, Williams moved them into range to kick the game-winning field goal in the final minute. Yet Eberflus decided against running another play with a timeout in the final 30 seconds and settled for a 46-yard field goal, which was promptly blocked.

The mistakes continue piling up for Eberflus, and it has reached the point where it would be surprising if he was still the head coach next season.

Thursday was another winnable game where he didn't put his team in the best position to win, which once again led to more questions about his overall status.