It was too much to expect the Chicago Bears to beat the Detroit Lions. One team is the hottest in the NFL. The other has suffered a series of devastating defeats over the past two months. In truth, the Bears’ lopsided loss in Detroit was predictable for one reason and one reason only: the gulf between the head coaches. It has become abundantly clear over the past three years that Dan Campbell is a master of motivation and staff-building for the Lions. He’s assembled two outstanding assistants, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn. Matt Eberflus has watched three coordinators leave because they were terrible.
More than anything else, it was once again a sign that the Bears head coach had no concept of situational awareness. He once again needlessly burned timeouts on pointless challenges. The defense couldn’t get off the field on third down in the first half. Offensively, they couldn’t run the ball to save their lives, leaving Caleb Williams in a difficult spot once again.
Best of all? More dumb mistakes cost them a chance at an epic comeback, including the inexplicable refusal to spend his final timeout to preserve a game-tying field goal. It’s a familiar story at this point. The inferiority was crystal clear. What else do the Bears need to see at this point? Eberflus doesn’t need or deserve any further games for evaluation.
Matt Eberflus will go down as one of the worst in Bears history.
People will use the excuse of the team instigating a rebuild during his first year in Chicago, prompting him to go 3-14 that first season. Here’s the thing. John Fox won five games despite Ryan Pace doing the same thing in 2015. Eberflus has been handed a much better roster than Fox had, particularly at quarterback with Justin Fields and now Caleb Williams. For him to have the longest losing streak in Bears history (14 games) and be two more away from the second-longest (8 games) tells you how overmatched he is for this job.
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The McCaskeys won’t fire him midseason. They have never done that since taking ownership of the franchise in 1983. If Marc Trestman didn’t get the boot after the dumpster fire of 2014, Matt Eberflus won’t either. This means fans must endure five more games of this nonsense. Thomas Brown remains a candidate for the job despite a rough first half. He pulled things together in the second, but it was too late. Eberflus couldn’t get a stop from his defense when needed, which should kill any remaining arguments for keeping him.
I disagree that the 2 min playcalling was bad. The game came down to a couple of plays basically that didn’t work, but should have. The first was the missed crossing route to DJ that likely ended the game if completed, but Caleb missed what for him, should be an easy throw. You had the two offensive PI calls on Kmet as a result of getting sloppy with technique he knows that reversed critical gains and put them behind the chains. And the last was the sack that effectively ended the game. From what I heard in post game interviews,… Read more »
The last minute of that game was incredibly BAD head coaching. Clock management and taking the time to get players on the same page. If the Lions want to pose and prance, just get back to the line, be ready to spike the ball and force the refs to call them for delay of game. But these people act as if they’ve never been in a close game before. Keep repeating myself. It’s the coaching. Brown was ok and the offense looked good as the game progressed, but SOMEONE is head coach. I just don’t know if they’ve had anyone… Read more »
“Fans MUST endure 5 more games of this”, huh?
Not if they grew a spine and stopped showing up to Soldier Field.
@V5THNOV That’s exactly what I was thinking ..they were at or near the 50 yard line with 2 min to go… didn’t have to make big pass plays…dail up some runs…some easy check downs for Caleb to get closer to the goal line ….horrible offensive play calling at the 2 min mark…. but that got overshadowed by the horrendous time management once again by Flus…. ownership needs to swallow that pride or prob stinginess of not wanting to fire a head coach mid season… you need to do it for the players… sure maybe it will still be a shit… Read more »
There’s nothing to add about Flus that others haven’t already said, but Lambert, do you ever do any research? Dan Campbell did not hire Ben Johnson, he inherited him from Matt Patricia. Their GM didn’t find him either, because he too inherited Johnson. In fact, while they chose to retain Johnson, they didn’t even name him OC when they took over. They brought in Anthony Lynn instead, then replaced him with Johnson before year 2. Campbell and Johnson were both position coaches together for a few years under Joe Philbin in Miami, but Campbell has never hired or “discovered” Johnson.… Read more »