The final meaningless Bears game to conclude an equally meaningless season ended with a 29-13 loss to Minnesota Sunday, and while they began taking off their uniforms in the Soldier Field locker room they suddenly had meaning restored.
Jordan Akins did it.
The Houston Texans wide receiver caught a 28-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-20 and then also the two-point pass to give Lovie Smith's Houston Texans a 32-31 win over the Indianapolis Colts.
As a result, the Chicago Bears owned the first pick in the 2023 National Football League draft for the first time since 1947.
It's a consolation prize for the most defeats in franchise history.
"I'm sure the organization is going to use that to their advantage," tight end Cole Kmet said. "Obviously No. 1 pick is a big deal but at the end of the day it's just not where my focus is at."
It will be where the organization and fans focus, though, because what the Bears did this year was nothing short of misery and no one wants to focus on a a 3-14 record, second worst by winning percentage standards in franchise history.
"That's something we'll talk about in the future," coach Matt Eberflus said of the draft.
There wasn't much to say about the past, especially Sunday
They finished with a franchise-record 10th straight loss Sunday using both backup quarterbacks Nate Peterman and Tim Boyle .
The last of the three Bears wins came back on Oct. 24 before they traded away Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith.
"I mean when that happens, stuff like that happens, obviously that's a big thing that happens to your football team," coach Matt Eberflus said. "And the thing I noticed, certainly on the defensive side of the football, you could feel that. I could feel it in the locker room and I could feel it for a couple of weeks. I could feel that because they're so interconnected as human beings and you could feel that a little bit during that time."
As former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai liked to say, it was palpable.
"It's something that we decided as as a group that was in the best interest of the organization but I thought the players did a really good job of coming back together, harnessing back together the culture," Eberflus said.
If they did this, it was a losing culture this year and it continued Sunday.
The Bears hung in the game after falling behind 16-0 on an Adam Thielen 4-yard TD catch, Alexander Mattison's 1-yard TD run and Greg Joseph's 28-yard field goal.
A player who typified what Eberflus said about coming back, Velus Jones Jr., kept them close by breaking a 42-yard end around toss off the right side for a TD. They were still within 23-13 after a Cole Kmet 11-yard TD catch in the third quarter of a Peterman pass.
They lacked the firepower again to finish, and the Vikings put it away with Greg Joseph field goals of 50 and 41 yards.
The Bears played without their injured first five cornerbacks and still had two forced fumbles from reserve cornerback Harrison Hand. They allowed 225 yards passing on 17 of 20 to Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and then he left at halftime in favor of Nick Mullens.
Even without injured Justin Fields, the Bears offense did emerge with the franchise rushing record. They broke the mark of 2,974 set by Walter Payton's 1984 Bears with 3,014 yards.
With 118 rushing yards on Sunday, the Bears had 3,014 yards.
"That's good," Jones said. "But overall, the bigger picture, it's about a team.
"We didn't have the season we wanted to, but it's about everybody coming back to work and putting their all into this organization for the Bears. Everybody take a mental break this offseason, but get back to work and better yourself."
When they return it will be with the first pick for the 2023 draft in tow, and maybe someone can send a thank you note to Lovie Smith.
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