CHICAGO — The Bears are done searching for moral victories.

Wins are not exclusively a quarterback stat, but if you check out Pro Football Reference, it’s the only position that has a win-loss record accompanying the rest of the stat line.

So while Caleb Williams has had an impressive debut season – including becoming the first rookie in Bears history to throw for more than 3,000 yards – there is also the caveat that the team simply is not racking up “Ws.”

“He’s making some plays out there but we’re not winning,” veteran safety Kevin Byard III said. “Obviously, kudos to him. He’s a rookie and he’s still learning and still growing but, at the end of the day, it’s still frustrating because we’re not winning.”

[MORE: The Bears fell victim to a Ben Johnson trick play for the ages in loss to Lions]

The Bears dropped their 9th straight game Sunday to the Lions by a score of 34-17. They didn’t score for the first 23 minutes of the game after going 3 straight contests with nary a first-half point.

Williams finished 26-of-40 for 334 yards and 2 touchdowns through the air while leading the team in rushing with 34 yards. He did not throw an interception for the 9th straight game but he did lose a fumble for the 3rd straight game – on a botched handoff with fellow rookie Rome Odunze.

“I think he played well, being resilient,” said Keenan Allen. “Just playing the whole game, getting better throughout the game. … Would definitely love to score more than we did.”

[Bears-Lions recap: Highlights as they happened at Soldier Field]

Williams has flashed his immense potential throughout the course of the losing streak, including an elite strike to Allen for the Bears’ 2nd touchdown:

And he’s done this all amid chaos around him, as his head coach and offensive coordinator were fired midseason. That would be difficult for any quarterback to rise above, let alone a rookie.

“Throughout this whole season, the growth that I would say I’ve had and then the growth that we’ve had on offense and being able to fight through all of what’s been going down for us,” Williams said postgame. “Coaches being fired in the middle of the season, different coaches being promoted in different ways.

“I think the fight – we’ve got to do better with the execution. … The NFL is tough. Winning games is tough.”

Williams understands there is more he can do to help set his team up for success.

[READ: ‘That’s our resume’: How a once Top 5 Bears defense has fallen apart]

The offense gained just 1 yard on the opening drive of the game against the Lions before punting on a 3-and-out.

On the next 2 drives, the Bears fumbled the ball away and gave the Lions great field position.

“Obviously there’s been growth but, today, I will say that it wasn’t us growing in that sense,” Williams said. “We did a lot of things good but we also did a lot of things bad to put our defense in bad situations to not help us in scoring points.”

While Williams’ final stat line looks good, almost all of it came with the team trailing by multiple scores.

The pair of fumbles staked the Lions to a 13-0 lead and, after another Bears punt, Detroit made it 20-0.

The Bears finally got on the board with 6:31 left in the first half but the Lions responded right away to extend their lead to 27-7.

“It’s hard to build upon this type of stuff – you don’t want to go into next year with multiple games where you’re down two scores the whole game,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “That’s not how you want to play offensive football in this league.

“You gotta be able to run the rock, playaction – all those types of things. When you get down two scores, especially late in the game, I don’t know what you can really take from that, honestly.”

Kmet has been outspoken about the Bears’ issues the past couple of weeks and is tired of searching for moral victories.

He and the Bears want to see wins on the scoreboard and in the standings.

“I’m kinda done doing that,” Kmet said. “I’ve been through this now. Two years ago, it felt like trying to find positives through things and it’s hard for me to, like, be real with myself and find positives when we lose 34-17.

“…It’s important for younger guys to take steps up and that’s cool to see Caleb be able to do that but at the end of the day, it’s 34-17. It’s just not good enough.”