Bears hope they’ll get another chance to learn from playoff mistakes

This playoff game was billed as a referendum for Bears Weather. Better win now before the team moves indoors, whichever suburb is ultimately chosen as the new home, right?

But Joe Montana and Jerry Rice already proved roughly 40 years ago a California team can survive the windy shores of Lake Michigan in January. Unfortunately for the Bears, history sort of repeated itself Sunday when the Rams kicked a field goal in overtime to advance to next week's NFC Championship Game in Seattle.

As Bears season ends, this game was a good time to learn some lessons and maybe re-evaluate strategy. Will they get a chance to correct mistakes in next year’s playoffs? Good question.

Topping the list might be the next time the defense faces a vital third-and-six in overtime, maybe don't choose a blitzer who is standing straight across from Puka Nacua, one of the league's dominant receivers. Kyler Gordon tried to blitz, but Nacua burned the Bears for a 16-yard gain.

Sending pressure to speed up Matthew Stafford was vital to the Bears game plan. At some point, though, the Rams will be ready for it, and Nacua is the wrong guy to let run free. That first down essentially set up the winning 42-yard field goal.

For head coach Ben Johnson, think about taking the points once in a while. The Bears went 3 of 6 on fourth down against the Rams, after a 2-of-6 outing against Green Bay last week.

That's an awful lot of fourth-down tries. First drive of the game, the Bears went for it on fourth-and-two at the Rams 21-yard line, which resulted in an interception.

Why not put away the macho play sheet and take 3 points there? No one knows how that would have affected the end result, but at least the Bears wouldn't have wasted all the early momentum from a 34-yard pass play on the game's opening snap.

For Caleb Williams, kudos again for being Mr. Clutch. The fourth-down tying touchdown pass to Cole Kmet was probably more impressive than the jaw-dropping Jumpman pass to Rome Odunze that saved the Green Bay game. Sunday's miracle counted as a 14-yard touchdown, but Williams let it go from the 40-yard line, in a backpedal, and dropped it in Kmet's lap.

The interception in overtime, however, was probably a bad decision. Too risky for a second down play when the Bears were only about 15 yards from reasonable field-goal range. Overall, there are no complaints with their second-year quarterback. Williams has been even better than advertised and he generally did a nice job with game situations against the Rams.

Maybe another lesson to learn is coin flip strategy. The Bears won the flip in overtime and elected to kickoff, which meant the Rams got two offensive possessions in the extra sessions, while the Bears had one.

This isn't college or high school rules, where both teams take turns with the ball. In the NFL, each team gets a possession, then it's sudden death. The same thing happened Saturday, with Buffalo winning the toss, electing to kick and losing to Denver on the third possession of overtime.

There was a bold move on the offensive line, moving veteran Joe Thuney from guard to left tackle, and using Jordan McFadden as the starting left guard. Before this game, third-year pro McFadden had played two offensive snaps all season.

Whether the Bears would have fared better with Theo Benedet starting at left tackle is anyone's guess. McFadden had some shaky moments, as expected, while Thuney was toasted by Jared Verse on that miracle tying touchdown when Williams was under a heavy rush. The Bears did go 6-2 in games Benedet started this season.

Naturally, there is hope this season will go down as a promising start to a successful era. The coach and quarterback took slightly different views after the game.

“I wish I could say this is momentum from Year 1, we'll take it into (next season) — it doesn't work that way,” Johnson said.

Williams countered, “We're going to be here for a little bit. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the growth, I'm excited about being able to go back and watch this.”

One thing can be said with certainty: There will be cold days on the lakefront again next January.