Matt Eberflus needed a bounce-back game in the biggest way. The Chicago Bears had just suffered a gut-wrenching loss to the Washington Commanders on a Hail Mary last week. Much of it came about because of Eberflus’ poor decision-making. A rebound victory in Arizona might calm the growing cries for his job. Instead, the Bears wet the bed with a 29-9 loss. Nothing went right. The defense allowed over 200 yards on the ground while Caleb Williams was sacked six times.
What in the world happened? A lot of it involved the Cardinals playing well, but anybody with eyes could tell the Bears weren’t all there. The effort and intensity were lacking. Guys weren’t on top of the details. It felt like they were going at half-speed. Williams offered his assessment of the situation. In truth, it boiled down to guys being unable to move past the Hail Mary last week against Washington. They lingered on it for days. By the time attention shifted to Arizona, it was too late.
That is why the team looked so unprepared and out of sorts.
Caleb Williams didn’t do his head coach any favors.
It fell on Eberflus to ensure his team had a short memory of last week. That is what head coaches do, or at least the good ones. Instead, the play seemed to fester across the locker room, giving guys nightmares about what happened and how everything went wrong. Whatever message Eberflus tried using didn’t land. There were already warning signs that players weren’t happy with him after last week. Some likely saw the head coach as a reason the play happened in the first place.
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Caleb Williams’ comments should not be downplayed. They are a surefire sign that Eberflus no longer has a firm grip on the locker room. A good example is last year. A week after the Bears experienced that awful collapse at home against Denver, they thumped the Commanders 40-20 in Washington. Not this time. Eberflus’ voice no longer resonates in the locker room. Some of his more recent decisions likely play a part in that. At 4-4 with the NFC North gauntlet on the horizon, his time is all but up.
Whoever is going to make changes, he/she/they/it will need to decide where to start and end either asap or later or at the end of the season. I blame the McCaskey’s/Halas for being cheap and not always honoring great players during their last years. But they did come around early on race and religion. They would not have won the 1963 NFL Champ. without a couple black DBs and RB Galimore. They featured Jewish players like Luckman, Cimini, Testerman as coach, and several others. They played Arab Americans like Bill George, Jeff George, Doug Flutie. and had Abe Gibran as… Read more »
The Bears still don’t have an identity. Something got to change!
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The Saints just fired Dennis Allen I dunno why the Bears have this tradition of sticking with coaches till the end of the season when everyone knows their toast especially if they’ve lost the locker room. If they lose against the Pats a change should happen sooner rather than later. Elevate someone from within or bring someone out from retirement to be an interim coach till the end of the season. It couldn’t be any worse and might win you some games as well as give the team a fresh perspective. Make your permanent coaching hire decision when the season… Read more »
Woulda shoulda coulda is a futile effort to change what’s already been done. JF was shipped because a consensus very high ceiling qb was available for less money. A business decision that’s hard to argue with. The same problems that stunted any upside the previous qb had (porous OL, coaching instability/incompetence) remained. Same old.
CW is maintaining his composure so far but that vid clip shows a competitor who’s about to lose it. Can’t wait for the press conferences in the second half.