Football on a short week is sometimes not very good. Football on a short week the day after Christmas in the rain? Very not good. Let's see if I can come up with any highlights.
QUARTERBACKS
Seattle on its opening drive called 7 running plays versus only 2 passes, efficiently marching 71 yards before kicking a short field goal. It was entirely different from the other 54 minutes of the game, almost as if Seattle realized at the beginning that Geno Smith was going to have a throwback to his early Jets days kind of outing and that Chicago was more vulnerable to the run than the pass. But no, after that series they weirdly emphasized the pass, with their running backs combining to run for just 50 yards the rest of the game compared to 53 on that opening series.
Smith concluded that first series trying to force a ball in to Tyler Lockett despite two Chicago linebackers being between the quarterback and his receiver. They collided and the ball fell harmlessly to the turf, a Christmas miracle it wasn't intercepted. Considering Seattle scored half of its points on the drive, it was a significant missed opportunity by the Bears defense. Smith's second series was a three and out where he scrambled on third and seven and could easily, easily have picked up the first down. But rather than do that, he tried to jam a pass into a well-covered receiver that fell incomplete. Smith went on to make a couple of good throws after that, but it was a pretty wretched outing for everything connected with the passing game.
Caleb Williams had the play of the night (a low bar, granted), scrambling to his left and uncorking a beautiful touchdown throw across his body just before the half. Would have possibly won the game, given how everything else played out. Sadly, it was erased by a holding penalty. Had another nice sandlot play where he scooped up a bad snap and completed a 16-yard pass to Keenan Allen, a drive that ended in Chicago's only points. Ultimately Williams did his best work as a runner (37 yards) and his worst work getting rid of the football (7 sacks), with several plays where he and his receivers were on different pages. (And his center, with a couple of snaps that Williams didn't seem to be expecting, one of which resulted in a key late sack.) None of these guys were getting a ton of separation and Williams didn't have a lot of time to throw. I'm not going to make a ton of excuses for him but I do think the talent is there, and it's shown on some throws. Maybe next year the offense will put things together.
RUNNING BACKS
On the off-chance someone missed my previous apology for dismissing Zach Charbonnet at some point, here it is again. Good running back, runs hard, fights for yardage, catches the ball well. Carried it 4 times for 24 yards on the first series, looking like he'd be going over 100 in the game with relative ease. He was at 9 for 50 in the first half. But just 6 carries for 7 yards in the second half, and we can debate whether Chicago's defense got better or Seattle didn't try to run it enough or was just telegraphing those plays. Felt to me like they should have worked it more than they did because, you know, it was working. Certainly the Kenny McIntosh change-up (7 for 46) was doing well. But no, Seattle didn't go that route. Kind of weird.
I was facing D'Andre Swift in a Super Bowl and thus rooting against him, so maybe his middling outing was my fault. He had one really nice 24-yard reception on a screen pass, but his other 3 receptions totaled 4 yards, mostly because everyone watching the game (including, most notably, the Seahawks) could predict those plays with complete accuracy before they occurred. Had a couple of decent runs but I think most will agree that Swift is a better complementary back than a lead guy. Unfortunately, Roschon Johnson doesn't quite look quick enough to the line (4 carries, 5 yards) and the Bears gave away Khalil Herbert. Maybe next year they'll find an actual threat at running back to help the offense.
WIDE RECEIVERS
A whole lot of suck here. DK Metcalf got in a fight with an opposing defensive back where he smacked him in the helmet a couple of times, that was his biggest contribution. Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught 3 passes, with a nifty 19-yard reception in there, but didn't get the chance to do much. Tyler Lockett was involved early, including the aforementioned chance near the goal line that never should have been thrown, but finished with a 3 for 20 stat line. Lockett's last seven games have to be seen to be believed: 19, 20, 16, 0, 22, 19 and 20 yards. It's like a robot is projecting weekly statistics for the veteran. Has anyone seen him and Texans wideout Robert Woods at the same time? I'm thinking they're the same person, flying around the country generating weekly stat lines for both franchises that are identical.
DJ Moore (6 for 54) was Chicago's lone double-digit PPR wideout. Moore looked frustrated for a lot of the night. Keenan Allen had a 16-yard catch on a little sandlot play over the middle; his other 4 receptions totaled 9 yards -- long forward handoffs. Rome Odunze caught the touchdown erased by a penalty and had another potential big play where he was wide open over the middle but stopped and was overthrown; Williams wanted/expected him to keep running.
TIGHT ENDS
Noah Fant was oddly involved for Seattle, leading the team in catches (4) and yards (43). Next week he'll catch 1 for 10, I imagine. Journeyman Pharaoh Brown had a late reception where he was gang-tackled by the entire Bears defense and had his arms and the football removed from his body, no whistle. Worth mentioning, the refs had no desire to extend this game by blowing whistles at any point. It was played in a tidy 2:41, so about 20 minutes less of your life than usual was wasted over the course of this one.
Cole Kmet played 93 percent of the snaps without being targeted on any of Caleb's 28 pass attempts. My sympathies if at any point this season you accidentally put Kmet into a lineup. Sometimes you help rookie quarterbacks by dialing up short throws over the middle to big targets like a 6-foot-6, 260-pound tight end. But the Bears have elected not to go that route.
MISCELLANEOUS
There was some late game clock mismanagement by interim head coach Thomas Brown, it seemed, with the team burning a couple of timeouts at weird times and changing its mind about punting versus not punting. I'd like to thank Brown for not subjecting us to an overtime period, which could have occurred if Chicago had picked up 10 more yards and kicked a field goal.
Thursday night football was better this season than anyone was used to most weeks. But two of the last three (Rams 12, 49ers 6 and Seahawks 6, Bears 3) didn't have any touchdowns, and that will be one of the prevailing memories.