Bears late game clock management issue against the Vikings came down to one player who's burned the team far too many times

A lot went wrong for the Chicago Bears in the regular season opener to the Minnesota Vikings for the final result to end up the way it did, and there's a lot of finger pointing to go around.

The Bears offense failed to adapt to defensive coordinator Brian Flores' defense, quarterback Caleb Williams struggled to make routine throws and keep the unit on schedule, the run game had issues with consistency, and the defense got gassed in the fourth quarter after a strong start.

Sounds similar right? How about the part where the Bears botched a clock management situation late in the final two minutes and had kicking issues to lose the game? Does that sound familiar?

Ben Johnson explains what went wrong on the final kickoff

Late in the final quarter, the Bears offense finally got back in the endzone after Williams hit wide receiver Rome Odunze for a touchdown with 2:02 remaining in the game. The Bears were still down three points and needed to find a way to get the ball back while having just one timeout.

The Bears had two options: attempt an onside kick or kick the ball out of the back of the endzone for a touchback. Bears head coach Ben Johnson settled for option #2.

"The intent was for the ball to go out of the endzone," Johnson said after the loss while speaking with reporters. "We did [consider an onside kick]. We felt like if we kicked it out of the endzone, and got the three-and-out that we got, we'd get the ball back with around 56 seconds."

Instead, the kickoff was short and went halfway into the endzone. Ty Chandler took the ball out on the return, as requested by the Vikings sideline, to shave off the two minute warning for the offense. After the Bears got the three-and-out defensively, the team's offense instead got the ball with nine seconds remaining.