Wednesday was the third day of the 12th month without a Bears win.
The Bears have lost 13 in a row since stunning the Patriots on the Oct. 24, 2022, edition of “Monday Night Football.” Since the Bears’ losing streak began with a Week 8 loss to the Cowboys on Oct. 30:
† They’ve been outscored by 190 points, by far the biggest point differential in the sport.
† They’ve allowed 437 points, the most in the NFL. The Bears have given up 25 points or more in each of those games, an NFL record for such a losing streak.
† They’ve failed to throw for more than 275 yards in all 13 games, which is tied with the Falcons for the league’s longest active streak.
Entering the game Sunday against the winless Broncos, their losing streak is the longest active one in the NFL — and a franchise record.
Coach Matt Eberflus met with the Bears’ 18-person leadership council Wednesday morning at Halas Hall. His message was that it will take “fight” to end the streak.
“A lot of times what happens with human nature is you make excuses,” Eberflus said. “You blame this; you blame that; you blame injury; you blame circumstance; you blame all these things.
“You can’t do that. You’ve got to own up to what you’ve done. The circumstance is the circumstance. You’ve got to execute and do what you’re supposed to do. Do your job every single day. You never know when it’s right around the corner. That’s our attitude. We’re determined. We’re focused on this week alone.”
That doesn’t make the slump any less soul-crushing. Safety Eddie Jackson marveled at how quiet the locker room was the day after the season-opening loss to the Packers. It was a bizarre scene last week, too, as players dealt with defensive coordinator Alan Williams’ departure.
“This squad, we haven’t won in close to a year now,” tight end Cole Kmet said in a dour locker room Sunday night in Kansas City. “There’s a lot of guys who have been here. I do believe in the aspect of learning how to win. We gotta get to that point and be able to start pulling games out and take it from there.”
Kmet compared last week to Thanksgiving week two years ago, when the Bears failed to shoot down a false report that Matt Nagy would be fired. The Bears ended the dramatic week with a win in Detroit.
Under Nagy, the Bears lost four straight in 2019, six straight in 2020 and five straight in 2021. All three streaks included a bye week, adding a longer gap between wins.
Eberflus’ skid is approaching the total losses of all three of Nagy’s streaks.
Defensive end DeMarcus Walker has lost eight games in a row twice in his career — with the 2017 Broncos and 2021 Texans — and seven straight with the Titans last season. He laughed when asked how he has dealt with such streaks — “I guess I’m still learning,” he said — but asserted the Bears were still “figuring out what it takes to win.”
Twenty-three current Bears, including quarterback Justin Fields, were on the field when they started their 13-game losing streak. On Wednesday, Fields insisted curtly that there was “no thought” of the streak in his head. Communicating is the key to keeping his teammates’ morale up, he said.
“A win fixes everything,” left tackle Larry Borom said. “It makes your morale better. Once you get one, you start to get addicted to it. We just need to taste it.”
Until then, safety Jaquan Brisker said, the Bears are angry.
“It just has to start with one win,” he said, “and one win would change a lot.”
