Stop if you’ve heard this before. Questionable decisions by head coach Matt Eberflus led to the Chicago Bears squandering another end-of-game moment that would’ve gotten a win. A few weeks ago, it was his defensive calls against Washington that led to the Hail Mary. This time, it was his decision to settle for trying a 46-yard field goal despite having 35 seconds left, a timeout, and it being 2nd down. Cairo Santos’ kick was blocked, allowing the Green Bay Packers to escape 20-19.
That alone was bad enough. It got ten times worse when even Packers players revealed they were surprised the Bears didn’t run at least one more play to get the kick closer. All it did was give them a crucial extra millisecond for their unit to go for the block, which would’ve been much harder on a shorter kick.
Eberflus was asked about it after the game. His explanation was as lame as you’d expect. Basically, Green Bay was loading the box against the run, and he didn’t want to risk a turnover. Never mind that it was 2nd down, and he could’ve let his young quarterback, who’d complete 74% of his passes, try a short throw to pick up a few more yards. Green Bay had allowed three straight completions prior to that play.
Matt Eberflus stayed true to who he is.
He’s a defensive coach. His entire focus is on limiting mistakes, which is why guys like him are often risk-averse. They prefer playing it safe. Another way to put it is that he plays not to lose. Anybody who knows the NFL will tell you that playing not to lose is how you always lose. Being so conservative in crucial moments tells players that he lacks a killer instinct. He won’t take risks unless given no other choice. It is why he allowed that easy 13-yard completion against Washington before the Hail Mary and why he opted for a tougher field goal try despite every metric saying he should run at least one more play.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
This is why he keeps coming up short in tight games. His lack of situational awareness doesn’t help. Matt Eberflus didn’t even have the courtesy of putting the ball on the right hashmark, which Santos typically prefers. His lack of knowledge of the little things has characterized his entire coaching tenure. If and when Eberflus is fired in just under two months from now, that passive nature will be one of the primary reasons.
@Skee: Poles is trapped between not wanting to neg the current head coach and setting himself and the fans up to fire said head coach on bloody Monday. I mean, it’s not like he’s going to announce that Flus will be fired in advance. So what is Poles supposed to say? At least he’s not making excuses, or trotting out statements of support while Flus blows a close game, suffers two bad losses, and then blows another close game.
Anyone notice with the obvious coaching decisions that’s the root cause of many of these losses that Ryan Poles is quite as a mouse..?
Better game than I expected. Bears actually had an NFL offense. Flus is just fk’n horrible. He got lucky AF at the end of the 1st half after letting that clock run down to 10 seconds. That was DUMB. What if there was a penalty?? Then ur stuck with a field goal there. To let it run down to 20 seconds I get but 10 was veryyy risky.
Irishman… 100% on CW forcing that play. He looked very confident all around today. Whole offense looked much better.
Our rookie QB ran that power option brilliantly all game. He couldn’t have run that one time with the timeout in our pocket? You are done Flus. And you are probably taking Poles with you.
I really wish I had the “Flush the Flus” bumper sticker concession.