Stop if you’ve heard it before. The Chicago Bears are leading in the 4th quarter. They have a chance to win the game in the final seconds, but a baffling decision by head coach Matt Eberflus enables the opponent to take advantage of an overlooked weakness. Matt Eberflus did it again. In Washington, it was calling soft coverage on defense and failure to call a timeout before the Hail Mary attempt. Now, it was not trying to shorten a game-winning field goal attempt despite having 35 seconds left and a timeout in his pocket.
Green Bay knew Cairo Santos kicked low on longer attempts due to lacking leg strength and that the Bears’ protection was weak. They exploited both to block the kick, sealing their 11th straight win in the rivalry. Eberflus insisted after the game that he was satisfied with the decision to kick. After having 24 hours to look at the tape and assess the decision, has he changed his mind? Nope. The head coach remained stubborn in his argument that no glaring mistake was made.
Matt Eberflus remains a prisoner of his risk-averse nature.
The excuses were aplenty. He didn’t want to risk losing yardage, a penalty, a fumble, or any other mistakes. Never mind that his young quarterback had the hot hand, and the Packers’ defense was reeling. Just seven more yards would’ve put the Bears in a range where Santos has never missed since coming to Chicago. Meanwhile, Jim Harbaugh is in the same exact situation on Sunday night against Cincinnati. He decides to run one more play, and it busts for a touchdown that proved the difference in the game. That is the difference between a coach who trusts his players and one who doesn’t.
History continues to show that head coaches who play it safe almost always lose. No risk, no reward remains truer than ever in the NFL. That is why hiring Matt Eberflus in the first place was always puzzling. Defensive coaches are conservative by nature, preferring to play ball-control, mistake-free football. The problem is instilling a fear of mistakes inevitably leads to them. This is why Eberflus can never seem to win tight games against good opponents. All of them are more willing to play the odds than him. When he is finally fired in January, that reality will follow him for the rest of his career.
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Who hired Matt Eberflis……? The answer to this question is where the real problem is located…!
Worst Bears head coaches of all time based on mental errors and plausibly poor excuses for ineptitude:
@Beardown54 you run a pass play with Caleb rolling out to the sideline. Pass if it’s clearly there, or throw the ball out of bounds. It’s a safe call and if Caleb is about to get sacked, throw the ball into the stands. Flus had nothing to lose. He’s lost 3 straight and his job was on the line. Play to win the game. Play to save your *ss. Show some fight. Let’s say it didn’t work. “I was playing to win”. That would go over better than looking conservative and still losing the game. By not going for it… Read more »
Herbert is different than a rookie QB who has taken sacks in field goal range last week. He should have run another run a high percentage play, but it’s not as bad as everyone’s is making it out to be.
I think what is worrisome is Flus seems to be a prisoner of the moment.
Flus does not look like a stupid or ignorant person but looks can be quite deceiving. There is neither an excuse nor any hope for him as a head coach. Once again, he had no feel for the game situation or flow of momentum, just plausibly, yet wrong, excuses, as usual.