LOOK FOR THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION.

Chicago Tribune sports pundit Dan Wiederer asks the obvious.  "‘Why does he get to save his job?’ Ryan Poles is in line to hire another Chicago Bears coach. But should he be?"  He wrote that after the supposedly moribund 'Niners ran all over the Bears, but before the Vikings, whose color rush uniforms might make good camouflage for Finnish snipers, did with the Bears what real Finnish snipers do with a different sort of bear.

Being a general manager in Chicago is not an easy job.

From Row 2, Seat 43 inside the Levi’s Stadium press box, Bears general manager Ryan Poles stared down on the mess, on a team that appeared disconnected, emotionally spent and totally directionless, and he was left to process all he was seeing. In the first game after the Nov. 29 firing of coach Matt Eberflus, the Bears were absolutely throttled, suffering their worst defeat in what is now an astonishing seven-game losing streak.

As it turns out, there may be no bottom for this season’s embarrassment and humiliation. There is certainly no promise the Bears will win again. So now what?

What will happen at Halas Hall if this painful skid ticks up to eight games, nine, 10, 11?

None of this comes as any surprise on the winning side of the Cheddar Curtain.

The organizational rot is deep and of long standing.

By retaining Poles amid justifiable outside speculation about his long-term job security, the Bears have created at least one potential deterrent for prospective coaching candidates. They might worry about a) working under a boss with a mismatched timeline to theirs and b) uniting with a still-green GM who’s perceived to be stuck in the prove-it stages of his development.

Asked last week how he would address such concerns, Poles nodded.

“We can talk through that,” he said. “We’re open to talk through that. You could just ask around in this building and with how we treat people, that shouldn’t be an issue at all.”

For some, though, it will be.

Said one former AFC executive: “What big-time coach is going to sign up, no questions asked, to work with Ryan Poles right now? If you are a serious candidate, you’ll need to ask yourself — and more importantly them — what is the level of belief in Ryan and where exactly does it stem from?

“It sounds harsh. But the first question I’m asking is, ‘Why does he get to save his job?’ And I’d want to walk away with absolutely zero reservations about their answer.”

With the state of the Bears being heavily scrutinized, performances like Sunday’s only further the perception of an organization that feels discombobulated at best, dysfunctional at worst.

Therefore it’s critical that the Bears remember they aren’t simply selecting their next coach. That coach must choose them as well, seeking evidence this job is as attractive and stable as the team has advertised.

There can be stability in the job, although that's been missing of late.  A former Packer assistant coach called Dick Jauron was coach at the founding of Cold Spring Shops; he was succeeded by Lovie Smith, who was fired at the end of 2012 despite a Super Bowl trip early in his tenure; management cited his teams' inability to beat the Green Bay Packers, including in that glorious 2010-2011 campaign when his team had two chances, at home, to knock the Packers out of the playoffs and failed both.  Since then, the Bears have had more two-season-and-done head coaches, and now an interim coach, than the Packers have had since Cold Spring Shops was founded.

Unfortunately, the Packers have as many Super Bowl appearances in that time frame as the Bears, although their one appearance turned out well.