A coordinator shoulders blame for a crucial defensive lapse, a stark contrast to past Bears leadership. This shift signals a new era of accountability.
It could have been a much different game for the Chicago Bears on Sunday if they hadn't let up a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers just before halftime.
The first quarter ended with both teams tied at 0. Then, the Packers opened things up with a 23-yard touchdown from Jordan Love to Christian Watson to make it 7-0. Chicago's offense struggled to find the end zone and settled for a field goal.
It looked like the Bears had a chance of going into halftime down by four points, but that all changed on the following drive. The Packers scored again before half, as Love threw a dart to Bo Melton.
While it can be easy to blame someone else, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen took responsibility for the mishap. This is a much different tone than Bears fans saw under head coach Matt Eberflus.
If Chicago hadn't allowed that touchdown, the Bears may have been tied at 21 late in the game instead of looking for a late score. The Bears were down 28-21 and threw an interception trying to tie the game.
"Yeah, look, you know I really put that on me," Allen said. "I've got to coach that up better in terms of how we have to defend that. They had a good play, we didn't defend it as well as we needed to, and really, I've got to do a better job there."
You can look back at the 23-20 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Detroit Lions, which was due to Eberflus' poor clock management. The Bears had one timeout left with under 30 seconds and didn't call it.
Instead of taking the blame, Eberflus said he was hoping Caleb Williams would call it, even though the head coach had just as much control over it.
"We like the play that we had," Eberflus said via Yahoo Sports' Jason Owens. " We were hoping that [Williams] was going to call it — get the ball snapped. And then we would have called time out right there. Once it’s under seven there, then you call timeout there, you’re basically throwing the ball to the end zone. Because once it’s under 12, you can’t throw it inside with no timeout."
This is an excellent sign of change under head coach Ben Johnson, in which even the coordinators are willing to take blame for their mistakes.
It's part of the reason why Chicago has seen such a quick turnaround after finishing with just five wins a year ago. The Bears move on to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at noon CT on Fox.