The worst part of the Chicago Bears’ utter folly at the end of their Thanksgiving loss might have been Matt Eberflus saying afterward that he liked what they did.
He told a fan base that what everyone saw at the end of the Bears’ horrific final 30 seconds in a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions wasn’t actually that bad. Regardless of the context, this would end badly. And that is what happened when Eberflus was fired on Friday.
For anyone who missed it over the holidays, the Bears trailed 23-20 in the final minute. Caleb Williams was sacked just before 30 seconds were left 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 has not thrown him a lifeline. The clock ticked down to six seconds, and when the ball was finally snapped, Williams’ incomplete pass downfield was the final play of the game.
“I like what we did there,” Eberflus said after the game as part of his explanation.
The Bears had never fired a coach a season earlier, a fact they made sure everyone was aware of on multiple occasions. They had to break that weird tradition for Eberflus, and it wasn’t just the Thanksgiving fiasco that led to that.
Matt Eberflus cost the Bears in close games
Part of a coach’s job is what he says after a loss. It’s not a big part of the job, but you also can’t tell a dedicated fan base that your mistakes were actually completely fine.
When the Washington Commanders beat the Bears on a Hail Mary and easily picked up 13 yards on the penultimate play, when the Bears played deep back to give Jayden Daniels a chance to throw the ball into the end zone, Eberflus said he was. don’t worry about the profit. Meanwhile, Commanders coach Dan Quinn said the Commanders could not have completed the Hail Mary without it.
In a loss to the Green Bay Packers, a field goal was blocked in the last second. Eberflus said the team “felt good” about not trying to get the ball closer to kicker Cairo Santos, although Packers players said afterward they knew Santos was kicking a low trajectory on longer kicks.
Then came the final game against the Lions. If you say you’ve never seen anything like this before, you’re right. OptaSTATS said that in the past 30 NFL seasons, on 1,501 occasions, there has been only one team that lost by three or fewer points and made a play inside the opponent’s 30 on their final drive, but had the clock run out without a field goal to try. or use all their timeouts. That was the Bears on Thursday.
According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Eberflus had the worst record of any 221 coaches in NFL history, with 20 or more games decided by seven or fewer points. Eberflus was 5-17 in those close games. It cannot be attributed to bad luck either.
The Bears aren’t exactly a clean organization either. They let Eberflus speak to the media on Friday and fired him a few hours later. That’s a really unprofessional look.
The entire franchise needs a cleaning. Maybe that started on Friday.
How can the bears change things?
The Bears haven’t won a Super Bowl since the 1985 season. They’ve never had a 4,000-yard passer. They haven’t won a play-off game since January 2011.
And they’ve also never had a quarterback prospect quite like Caleb Williams.
The Bears firing a coach midseason was a sign that they know clinging to old axioms is holding them back. In many ways, Chicago is stuck in the past. The Bears need to modernize their operation to maximize Williams. They have already wasted a season with him, giving defensive head coach Eberflus one season too long after finishing last season on a high note.
What was lost in the commotion over Eberflus’ mismanagement at the end of the game was that Williams played a very good second half against Detroit, nearly leading a wild comeback victory. He’s had his ups and downs as a rookie, but a lot of that can be attributed to coaching. The Bears’ offense has looked better since they fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron three weeks ago. Maybe things will look even better when Eberflus is gone too. The Bears as a whole have no choice but to be better organized at the end of games from now on.
The Bears have tried everything when it comes to hiring head coaches, so who knows which way they’ll go this time. But it has to be done with Williams’ development in mind. They cannot afford to let a great talent like Williams fail.
Whatever the Bears decide to do, they can first look at their long history. Then do the opposite.
