The worst part of the Chicago Bears’ absolute insanity at the end of their Thanksgiving loss might be that Matt Eberflus said afterward that he liked what they did.
Regardless of the context, telling a fan base that what everyone saw at the end of the Bears’ horrible final 30 seconds against the Detroit Lions actually wasn’t that bad was going to go badly. And this is what happened, with Eberflus dismissed on Friday.
For anyone who missed it over the holidays, the Bears were down 23-20 in the final minute. Caleb Williams was sacked just before 30 seconds remained in the game. And the clock kept ticking. The Bears had a timeout but didn’t call it. Williams looked like a confused rookie. Eberflus didn’t throw him a life jacket. The clock ticked down to six seconds, and when the ball was finally recovered, Williams’ incomplete pass downfield was the final play of the game.
“I like what we did there” Eberflus said after the match as part of his explanation.
The Bears had never fired a coach in a season before, a fact they made sure everyone was aware of on multiple occasions. They had to break this strange tradition for Eberflus, and it wasn’t just the Thanksgiving fiasco that led to it.
Matt Eberflus cost the Bears close games
Part of a coach’s job is to say what he says after a loss. It’s not a lot of work, but you also can’t tell a devoted fanbase that your mistakes were completely correct.
When the Washington Commanders beat the Bears on a Hail Mary, easily picking up 13 yards on the penultimate play when the Bears played back to give Jayden Daniels a chance to throw it into the end zone, Eberflus said he was I’m not worried about that 13 yard play. Meanwhile, Commanders coach Dan Quinn said the Commanders could not I finished the Hail Mary without it.
In a loss to the Green Bay Packers, a last-second field goal was blocked. Eberflus said the team “I felt good” not to try to bring the ball closer to kicker Cairo Santos, although the Packers players said after they knew Santos had taken a low trajectory on longer kicks.
Then came the Lions’ late-game situation. If you say you’ve never seen anything like this before, you’re right. OptaSTATS said that in the last 30 NFL seasons, in 1,501 cases only one team lost by three points or less and played within 30 points of the opponent on its final drive, but saw the clock expire without attempting a field goal or using up all their timeouts. It was the Bears on Thursday.
Eberflus had the worst record among 221 coaches in NFL history with 20 or more games decided by seven points or fewer, according to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press. Eberflus was 5-17 in those close games. Nor can this be attributed to bad luck.
The Bears aren’t a clean organization either. They asked Eberflus to speak to the media on Friday, then fired him a few hours later. It’s a really unprofessional look.
The entire franchise needs a clean-up. Maybe it started on Friday.
How can the Bears change things?
The Bears haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1985. They’ve never had a 4,000-yard passer. They haven’t won a playoff game since January 2011.
And they never had a quarterback prospect like Caleb Williams either.
The Bears firing a coach midseason was a sign they knew clinging to old axioms was holding them back. Chicago is stuck in the past in many ways. The Bears need to modernize their operations to maximize Williams. They’ve already lost a season with him, giving head coach Eberflus one season too many after finishing last season on a high note.
Lost in the commotion caused by Eberflus’ mishandling late in the game, Williams played a very good second half against Detroit, nearly leading a wild comeback victory. He had his ups and downs as a rookie, but a lot of that can be attributed to coaching. The Bears’ offense has improved since they fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron three weeks ago. Maybe it will be even better without Eberflus. The Bears as a whole can’t help but be more organized at the end of games from here on out.
The Bears have tried everything when it comes to recruiting head coaches, so who knows what direction they’ll go this time around. But this must be done with Williams’ development in mind. They can’t afford to waste a top prospect like Williams.
Whatever the Bears decide to do, they can first examine their long history. So do the opposite.
