MINNEAPOLIS Seven years ago, as we stood breathless on the clean edge of change, we watched Bears chairman George McCaskey more than we watched the game.

It was the season finale of the 2014-15 season and we were in Minneapolis, watching the Vikings beat the Bears 13-9. The game was at TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and the visiting owners suite was attached to the press box.

So we watched George fist pump and sigh and go through the normal range of emotions you feel while watching a very bad football team that you own. Bears general manager Phil Emery was also in the box, dutifully taking notes on a yellow legal pad. Did he know he was getting fired the next day, that he would end his time in Chicago by quoting folk singer Carrie Newcomer in an impromptu news conference in which he took no questions?

This team around, the Bears finale was a little more interesting, and by the end of the 31-17 loss, emblematic of the failed Ryan Pace regime.

Pace, hired to take Emerys place Jan. 8, 2015, usually sits in the press box for road games. But he gets to sit a level above the media in a broadcast box at U.S. Bank Stadium. I didnt see George, or any McCaskey, at all.

What could they have been thinking as the Bears blew an 11-point halftime lead by getting outscored 28-3 in the second half? Probably something about collaboration.

Win or lose, this game was essentially meaningless. No jobs could be won or lost with the process or the results, but even so, the journey from insignificant win to symptomatic loss was jarring but familiar. Watching

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Matt Nagy has a lot of words but no answers as he reaches the end of the line with the Bears - The Athletic