LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The Chicago Bears play in a lot of tight games.

They also find ways to lose most of those games, too.

Missed field goals, dropped touchdown passes, late defensive breakdowns ... the Bears have touched them all in the maddening John Fox era (12-30).

"We've shown spurts and moments...but we have lulls," Fox said. "We have siestas. We just don't do it for 60 minutes. Nobody, I think, is good enough to overcome that."

Certainly not these Bears.

Chicago now has three losses of six points or fewer in 2017.

The Bears dropped a combined 12 games by six points or fewer in 2015 and '16.

What does it mean?

"I don't think there's any doubt in this locker room or around the city -- from the fans that talk to me or post on social media and stuff like that -- there's no doubt that we're a good team," Bears defensive lineman Akiem Hicks said on Sunday.

"We have to be able to capitalize on those moments when the game is on the line, and we got to finish."

Hicks is permitted to take the optimistic view of the current situation. The veteran defender has been worth every penny since the Bears signed him to a massive four-year extension that includes $30 million in guarantees. The Bears definitely aren't losing because of Akiem Hicks.

But coming up short -- almost all the time -- is a bad pattern.

It shows the Bears either don't have the talent, coaching or wherewithal to finish the deal.

Most NFL games come down to four or five crucial plays.

The Bears routinely fail to make those plays -- Connor Barth's missed 46-yard field goal, Jordan Howard's touchdown drop against the Atlanta Falcons, Mitchell Trubisky's bad interception against the Minnesota Vikings, the secondary getting burned in an overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers ... the list keeps going and going.

The Bears will never be contenders -- led by Fox or anyone else -- until they learn how to put games away.

Sunday's 27-24 loss to the Detroit Lions -- although entertaining -- is another reminder of how truly far away the Bears are from relevancy in the NFL.

Chicago is 3-13 in NFC North games under Fox.

"All these games in the NFL -- they're hard games -- but when you have a game like this that you should win, you just have to win those games," Bears receiver Kendall Wright said. "I think with us, when we win one of those close games, it will help us get over the edge and we'll start stacking them up on top of each other."