Some people are already writing off Matt Eberflus as the Chicago Bears head coach. They feel too many bad things have happened since he took over to justify keeping him around for a third season. That decision remains in the hands of team president Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles. Both have offered public support of Eberflus at various points this season. It also helps that Eberflus has gone 5-4 in his last nine games, including three of the last four. Amidst that unexpected surge is the play of the Bears defense.
They allowed 13 or fewer points in those three victories over the past month. The unit stops the run, gets to the quarterback, and forces takeaways in bunches. Much of the credit for that must go to Eberflus himself. He’s been calling the defensive plays since the end of September. His influence is hard to ignore. Ironically, it might be a game where the Bears didn’t even play that earned him even more respect.
On Saturday night, the Detroit Lions faced the Denver Broncos. Chicago had just humbled their division rivals last week, holding them to 13 points. The Lions responded by posting 42 points on Denver’s defense. Jared Goff threw five touchdown passes. It was a clinic.
That game may put more shine on Matt Eberflus.
After all, he is the only one to date who held the Lions’ offense under 300 total yards in a game. He almost did it twice before that painful 4th quarter collapse in Detroit a few weeks ago. It remains evident that Eberflus is one of the best defensive coaches in the league. Presuming the Bears keep him stocked with good talent, the defense should remain among the NFL’s best for the foreseeable future. That is a big argument in favor of keeping him around. The game management is a big question mark, as is the status of offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, but having one side of the ball situated by the head coach is always an advantage.
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It is something to keep in mind. Matt Eberflus has gotten results lately. Sure, it would’ve been nice to get those results in September, but it didn’t go down that way. The Bears are a young team. It can take some time to learn how to win. Eberflus needed to do some learning of his own. Contrary to popular myth, being a head coach in the NFL isn’t easy. Not everybody can master the job right out of the gate. Maybe it took some time for him to get comfortable.
One thing is for sure. The Lions did him a favor.
While I agree Eberflus has improved their defense, they still need more talent on that side of the ball. Another pass rusher, good safety and adding depth should make that side of the ball adequate. The game plans and offensive plays, especially when the game is on the line, need to be addressed. I’m really not sure how much of that is Getsy and how much it’s Fields but it needs the most attention going into 2024. The Bears need a quality center and another offensive lineman to improve their already improving line. I really pleased with Ryan Poles’ eye… Read more »
Hey Pooch, I don’t find you annoying. Some things I agree with, and some I don’t. Same with everyone else on here. I appreciate the discussions, and probably get more out of them than the articles posted. All that being said, if you continue to diss the writer, the “insiders” will come for you. Good Luck.
The Chicago Bears are doing EXACTLY what they were supposed to do: get new players, slowly mesh them together, lose early, sometimes in embarrassing ways, and get better. They started with new coaches, new players, old fans. The new coaches and players needed time to both get better individually and collectively. They lost while doing so. They will continue to lose, but much more sporadically, but the old fans will whine and complain while comparing them to the best who ever played, or some phenomenal performance on another team. Some will insist that every screw up is an indication of… Read more »
Mentioning Eberflus and suggesting a potential firing in light of the results of another team’s game is a cheap way to dump out an article. I know television broadcast of games has far more resources, and they only produce once a week, but they actually RESEARCH and look at how each team functions, analyzes the game and production of players and coaches. Television is a lot more limited in how critical they can be on air, but can you imagine mentioning Eberflus’ firing 24 times in a game broadcast, or with every completion talking about how Justin Fields was going… Read more »
I disagree with @jmscooby.
Lions will do typical Lions things in the playoffs and likely lose round 1. And then their fans will act all off-season like they just won the SB.