Everyone was ready to high-five, hug and pray. But Bears coach John Fox wasn’t.
With five seconds left in the Bucs’ 36-10 rout of the Bears, Fox called a timeout.
Players, coaches and staff members from both teams literally stepped onto the field and had to turn around. It included Bucs coach Dirk Koetter, who looked ready for the routine postgame handshake and back slap from Fox.
But, alas, Fox wanted one more play – a short completion from Jay Cutler to Eddie Royal that turned into a 24-yard gain before Royal ran out of bounds.
“[The timeout was] a simple message of we’re not going to quit,” cornerback Tracy Porter said Wednesday at Halas Hall.
With a 2-7 team, all that matters for Fox is that his messages still resonate in the locker room. With the Bears rebuilding and set to play their young players more, Fox shouldn’t be judged so much by wins and losses over the next seven weeks but by how he’s able to prevent the rest of this season from turning into a circus.
“One thing he told us in the locker room after the [Tampa] game [was] ‘I don’t know about y’all, but I’ll never quit. It’s not in my blood,’ ” outside linebacker Sam Acho said. “And he’s like, ‘And you guys are the same way.’ ”
The remaining seven games will prove if that’s true. If players are truly texting national NFL columnists with complaints about Cutler, that’s a bad sign.
True or not, there have been enough stories to go with all the ugly losses this season to lead to comparisons to 2014 — the final year of Marc Trestman’s rough run that was highlighted by backstabbing controversies.
To Fox’s credit, players repeated his messages three days after getting pummeled by the Bucs and two days after losing two of their best players and leaders to injury (guard Kyle Long) and suspension (receiver Alshon Jeffery).
“Everybody knew that the game is over, but we’re advancing the ball and trying to get points on the board,” tight end Zach Miller said. “I know some people are probably looking like, ‘What the heck are they doing right now?’
“But I think it was more of: we’re struggling right now, but our mentality is that we’re going to move forward and we’re going to keep on pushing, regardless of what the scoreboard says.”
Unlike Trestman, Fox has a structure in place to handle conflicts. His leadership council, which includes representatives from all positions, allows for an airing of grievances.
Trestman’s use of weekly captains failed miserably, and his connection with the locker room deteriorated.
Fox’s ability to connect with players is his best quality, but with a losing record and plenty of young players, it might take some extra effort to get his messages across.
His decision to call late timeouts in Tampa is part of that process. Fox also called a timeout with 27 seconds remaining.
“I don’t know if everybody gets it or not; I get it,” outside linebacker Pernell McPhee said. “The core of the team, the guys who hold the team together, should get it. And if they don’t, I don’t know what to say about them.
“I don’t understand if anybody didn’t get the message because, [expletive], we’re down. Why are we ready to go home? We should be amped up. But it’s life. You deal with it.”
Fox needs to make sure that the Bears’ young players get it, too. From outside linebacker Leonard Floyd on down, their development means everything for the rest of the season.
But Fox needs them to buy into his messages, too. If they don’t, he can’t lead the rebuilding efforts. For now, it sounds as if they do — late timeouts included.
“It was meant to show us that he’s not giving up on us,” rookie defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard said. “He just wanted to show his fight.”
