Disorder. Dysfunction. Disappointment. As the Chicago Bears’ systemic failures continue, one proposed remedy has become common: ‘You clean house.’

After the latest avalanche finished Sunday night, after a 10-point first-half lead dissolved into a 45-30 loss to their biggest rival, the Chicago Bears were again left to pick themselves up and work through the dizziness.

For the sixth consecutive meeting, they had fallen to the Green Bay Packers. For the seventh time in the last eight games this season, they had lost. For the ninth season out of the last 11, they were assured to finish without a winning record.

Another long and embarrassing year was circling the drain.

Bears players and coaches retreated to the visitors locker room at Lambeau Field, left to deal with the disappointment and continue to search for hope. Support staff remained busy loading the team buses in the stadium’s south docks. And as 78,273 fans streamed back to the parking lots in Green Bay, an insulting chant echoed through the concourses, piercing the December chill.

“Bears still suck! Bears still suck! Bears still suck!”

Every chorus of that taunt just seemed to hang there, like breath in the cold night air. Somewhere, Bears Chairman George McCaskey had to hear that belittling progress report on his organization, an evaluation as bothersome as it was indisputable.

So now what?

I

At 4-9 and with only one victory in the last 66 days, the Bears again are in free fall with their parachute not activating. Around the NFL, most observers are merely waiting for the “Splat!”

Said one well-connected league source with knowledge of the inner workings at Halas Hall: “From the outside, the whole thing seems to be a nightmare. No matter what they try, they can’t get it right. … It’s to the point where you feel sorry for them. But then you wonder if they even realize how lost they are.”

Make no mistake: Significant change is likely coming. That wave already has begun building at Halas Hall. The question is when it will crash and just how much of the shore it will wipe clean.

At the end of a 2021 calendar year that has been defined far more by disappointment and embarrassment than galvanizing success, McCaskey, with guidance from the board of directors, must prepare to make a detailed critical assessment of his team and its leaders.

Coach Matt Nagy, general manager Ryan Pace and President and CEO Ted Phillips all shoulder some level of accountability for the Bears’ continued failures. But how will the pie chart of culpability among those three leaders be cut? And what will be the ultimate repercussions?

At this point for Nagy, after the colossal struggles of the last three seasons and his consistent inability to unlock the Bears offense, the idea of him returning as coach in 2022 seems incredibly far-fetched.

Pace? With a .414 winning percentage over seven seasons, zero playoff wins, a thin and aging roster and significant salary-cap issues, his work as general manager should be placed under a high-powered microscope and judged accordingly.

And Phillips? The longtime president and CEO finally could be ready for revised responsibilities. According to multiple sources connected to the team, Phillips has privately discussed distancing himself from football operations in recent months, making a frank acknowledgement to some confidants that the organization would benefit from a leader with greater football aptitude to oversee those in charge of the on-field product.

With another tumultuous and dispiriting season winding to a close, the Tribune spoke with more than a dozen people connected to the Bears and the league to examine the franchise’s current state and its possible plans of action.

Anonymity was exchanged for candor with several sources, given the evolving nature and overall sensitivity of the situation.

Still, from the outside looking in, one proposed remedy has become common.

“You clean house,” one league source said. “You start from the top. New team president. New GM. New coach. New everything. And you identify a new person at the top of the structure that you have confidence in to give full autonomy to, so they can redefine who you are and how you do things.”

Added another prominent source: “Pace and Nagy? You can fire both those guys without any blowback. Go for it. That’s justifiable on many levels. But as an organization you better also have a walk-with-Jesus moment where you realize the need to look at things that are systemic, the many things that haven’t been going right that need to be cleaned up. And you must identify all those things. Every last one of them.

“Just continually firing people and hiring replacements isn’t enough anymore. You have to admit and show as a franchise that, hey, we together realize and see all the errors we have made. And not just (recently). Go back over the past 10 or 15 years. Each step has seemed to be a step backward rather than a step forward. So in this next hiring process, you let your fans know that you’ll admit to that, that you see the errors in your ways and that you’re willing to look at everything.”

II

Gary from Lincoln Park, a longtime season ticket holder in Section 144 at Soldier Field, has reached his wit’s end in regard to the Bears’ ineptitude. Like so many passionate fans, he has