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The Chicago Bears lost a mind-boggling game to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. It was the sixth-straight loss for Chicago despite a recent rise in play from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. One stat shows why Matt Eberflus' hot seat is rising in temperature. Courtney Cronin of ESPN posted that mark after Thursday's loss.
“From ESPN Stats & Info: Since turnovers were first tracked in 1933, the Bears are the first team to go on a 6-game losing streak without committing multiple turnovers in any of those games.”
Williams has been fantastic, especially since Thomas Brown came aboard as the offensive coordinator. Even when he is off, as he was in the first half against the Lions, he is not turning the ball over. Under Shane Waldron, he was not taking risks which prevented interceptions. Now, he is throwing it all over the yard and not turning it over.
It is a great sign for Williams and the Bears. The future of the organization is staked in the first-overall pick and he has grown throughout the season. Thursday's second-half performance showed those improvements, with three touchdown passes and a furious comeback that fell just short. The brutal end-of-game situation could be blamed on Williams but mostly falls on Eberflus.
Bears must save Caleb Williams' career by firing Matt Eberflus
Matt Eberflus has been on the hot seat for the entire season and had the temperature turned up on Thursday. After a brutal first half saw them down 16-0, they came back in the second half. Williams had the ball down 23-20 with time running out. With 46 seconds left, they had a first down on the Detroit 25 with two timeouts. They did not tie the game and went back to Chicago with a timeout in their pocket and another loss.
Williams was the reason they got into that situation. Multiple perfect passes and a Lions penalty got them into the field goal range. After a first-down incompletion, they used their second timeout. The time-management questions were already rolling. After a Bears penalty knocked them out of field-goal range, Williams was sacked.
Instead of using the timeout before a key third-down play with over 20 seconds left, Eberflus held on to it. Williams took too long to get the snap off, his pass fell incomplete, and the game ended. Williams should be blamed for taking a sack and taking too long to snap it. But Eberflus gets the lion's share of the blame for not using the timeout.
These issues are fixable for Williams, especially if the next coach of the Bears is better with time management. Turnovers can be hard to zap out of a young player, so this stat shows why Chicago fans feel great about their quarterback.
