Matt Eberflus had a good plan coming to the Chicago Bears. It was considered a bit corny at the time, but the idea was sound. He wanted a team that hustled, played with intensity, was smart, and focused on taking away the football. As it was called, the H.I.T.S principle helped him produce quality defenses during his entire run with the Indianapolis Colts. People weren’t sure whether that messaging would carry the same weight as a head coach. Eberflus felt it would. After all, it worked for one of his mentors, Hall of Famer Tony Dungy, as well as Rod Marinelli and Lovie Smith.
However, many still had reservations about Eberflus’ ability to apply the same standards to the offensive side of the ball, considering it wasn’t his area of expertise. Unfortunately, those concerns seem to have proven valid. Despite a massive infusion of talent at wide receiver and a new offensive coordinator in Shane Waldron, the Bears still rank among the league’s worst units. Much of it comes from a baffling lack of discipline—too many penalties, too many missed blocks, and poor execution.
Eberflus isn’t the first to encounter this reality. Dungy ran into the same problem during his stint as a head coach in Tampa Bay. Players even called him out on it.
Matt Eberflus has no excuses for this continued ineptitude.
The Bears’ defense is once again among the league’s best. Unlike years past, though, it isn’t because of a massive talent gap. They simply play smarter, more efficient football. It feels like they are held to a high standard. Meanwhile, the offense stumbles around every week, never able to find a rhythm or establish an identity. Dungy ran into the same problems. In his six years with the Buccaneers, they never ranked higher than 21st in total offense despite having Pro Bowlers like Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn, and Keyshawn Johnson in the lineup.
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The sign of a good head coach is being able to craft an effective unit on the opposite side of the ball from his expertise. Pete Carroll, Bill Belichick, and Sean McDermott are excellent examples of this. Matt Eberflus falls into the all-too-familiar category of finding success on his side of the ball but never figuring out the other. Dungy had the same issue. Lovie had the same issue. Unless he can start getting those guys on offense to start executing how they should, this reality could cost him his job.
Because, unlike Dungy and Smith, he hasn’t done enough winning to buy time.
Eberflus should stop calling defensive plays and leave it to Eric Washington while REALLY paying attention to the whole team, including immersing himself about what an offense needs to do, to produce points. It isn’t second guessing his coordinator, but studying what other successful teams are doing and discussing with his coordinator, what he is trying to do. Multiple sets of eyes and perspectives will force Waldron to explain his theories in depth (which he doesn’t do with his players or other coaches). Someone has to do this with every coach at every level. Poles should be doing that with… Read more »
Managing timeouts and challenges is not rocket science. If you’re a defensive coach, or not, you still have to be able to get that in year one. He’s on year three!!!!! He needs to be held to head coach standards. He’s a good guy, who cares, and gets his team to play hard. Great, but that’s the lowest standard. That has to be the reason you were hired and because of that wins need to be the measuring stick. It’s year 3 and he’s been above .500 for one game. with the decision to draft Williams first overall, it was… Read more »
He throws challenge flags on plays the tv viewership already knows he’ll lose and is forced to waste timeouts due to lack of communication. If you can’t get those basics right you’re not an HC.
That said, it wasn’t his job to build a sturdy OL. An offense is as good as it’s OL and this one isn’t very good.
There will be no playoff berth for this team this season so play for another top 10 draft pick and use the first three (1st rd, 2 2nds) wisely on that OL. The key word being wisely.
I thought maybe Waldron would be a good OC; it’s not looking that way, but it is still early in the season. All I know is the Bears need to win one, so I don’t have to wait for Illinois basketball season to start to have glimpse of sports happiness. All the talent on the offensive side of the ball and they can’t average 2 touchdowns a game.
The issue is in fact Eberflus lack of offensive intelligence. He thought he had solved that issue bringing in Woldron. So far things have not went well for the offense, but it’s not even week 4 behind a rookie QB. Caleb has made progress every week he’s played so far, there’s no reason not to believe it continues in the right direction. Instead of being negative and pointing fingers, why not just root for this team to grow into a dominate force on both sides of the ball? I feel good about this game against the Rams. I believe the… Read more »