Prior to this season, the Chicago Bears had never fired a coach in a season, something they were proud of.
They also never experienced some of the late-game coaching fiascos they experienced this season, especially what happened on Thanksgiving with everyone watching.
Eberflus will take one last time out after the Detroit Lions’ loss for his next job. A last-minute debacle, in which the Bears let about 25 seconds elapse instead of calling a timeout. in a 23-20 loss for the Lions, it was the end of the Bears’ patience. Eberflus met with the media Friday morning and was fired shortly afterward, according to multiple reports. This is the first time the Bears have fired a head coach during a season.
Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will take charge for the remainder of the season, according to multiple reports.
The Bears suffered a few losses punctuated by strange coaching decisions, including the Lions loss and a Loss of the Hail Mary to the commanders in Washington. First overall pick Caleb Williams struggled for most of his rookie season before moving to offensive coordinator. Shane Waldron was fired and the Bears were quickly out of playoff contention. Brown was the passing game coordinator before Waldron’s firing.
The Bears will move on, and their fans’ last memory of Eberflus will be how his team blew another game in the final seconds.
Matt Eberflus has had a difficult tenure with the Bears
Eberflus’ first season ended with a 3-14 record, but Eberflus kept his job. The following season started just as poorly, with a 2-7 record. But Eberflus rallied to win five of his last eight matches, saving his job. It was a fun but ultimately damaging time, as it meant Eberflus kept his job for another season.
The 2024 season hasn’t started so badly. They were 4-2 at the bye, although some weak opponents helped. After the bye, it got ugly. Williams began to regress. The Bears lost to the Washington Commanders on a Hail Mary, which came after the Bears had given up just enough yards to put Washington in range for the long throw, a decision Eberflus said. “It doesn’t really matter.” A few weeks later, the Bears were in position to beat the Green Bay Packers, but settled for a 46-yard field goal attempt that was blocked. The Packers said they knew kicker Cairo Santos had a low trajectory on his kickswhich gave them a chance to block the last attempt. Eberflus stood by his decision not to try to get closer. An overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings made it seem like the Bears might be doing a little better, but the embarrassing loss to the Lions erased that thought.
On Thanksgiving, the Bears fought back from a 16-0 halftime deficit and trailed 23-20 in the final minute. A sack for about 30 seconds had the Bears going backwards, then chaos ensued. Williams looked like a confused rookie trying to get the team aligned. The snap didn’t happen until there were six seconds left. Williams threw deep and incomplete, after the clock expired. The Bears still had a timeout but didn’t use it.
You won’t find many NFL teams mess up the end of a game this badly.
Who will coach the Bears?
The Bears’ situation is not bad. The bar for success is low. Chicago has missed the playoffs 12 of the last 14 seasons. They haven’t won a single playoff game since the end of the 2010 season. But the roster is pretty good, and Williams has shown enough that a good coaching candidate can see the benefits of working with him.
After the Bears made the poor decision of choosing a defensive-minded coach in Eberflus while the rest of the league was hiring offensive-minded ones, it seems a safe bet that the Bears’ next coach will have an offensive background.
There’s reason to believe the Bears have better days ahead of them, which would be nice for a franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl in nearly four decades. Eberflus wasn’t the right fit, and it took the Bears another year to admit it.
In a marquee Thanksgiving game, Eberflus’ time ran out.
