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How Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus can still call himself head coach of the Chicago Bears on Monday is somewhat baffling. If Chairman of the Board George McCaskey had any guts, he would have “recommended” to owner Virginia Halas McCaskey that Eberflus be let go of his position after the Bears' disastrous loss to the Washington Commanders in Week 8.
Sure, Hail Mary's happen, but Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels should have never even been in position to beat the Bears with a Hail Mary. It was a play that was completely botched by Eberflus during the game, and his comments in the post-game made it exceptionally clear that he simply didn't understand the moment.
Yes, the Bears are still 4-3 and yes, they've been better than expected as rookie quarterback Caleb Williams gets his “sea legs.” But there's little doubting the fact that Chicago should be 5-3 right now. If it wasn't for Eberflus.
Here's a look at the three fireable offenses Eberflus committed in just one game.
Matt Eberflus let a lineman take a handoff at the goal line
A play like this gets lost in the shuffle with a moment like the Hail Mary sucking all the oxygen out of the room, but Eberflus greenlighting a handoff to an offensive lineman on third and goal with 6:21 to go in the fourth quarter, down 12-7, is completely unacceptable. He let offensive coordinator Shane Waldron — who has bit a bit shaky this season — play “smartest man in the room” and what should have been a statement drive that started at the 15-yard line with 10:05 to go ended up being one of the reasons the Bears are looked at as a joke right now.
Mind you, D'Andre Swift was running great, finishing with 118 yards and a touchdown, but in that moment, Eberflus heard a handoff to backup offensive lineman Doug Kramer come through his headset and he was cool with it. The result of that awful decision-making was a predicable fumble and turnover.
Who would have thunk it? Rather than give the ball to Swift or, heck, let his former Heisman Trophy winning No. 1 overall pick have some options on a bootleg, Eberflus let a backup offensive lineman try to run it in like he was William “The Refrigerator” Perry.
“I don't know the reason behind the play call,” Chicago wideout D.J. Moore said on “The Mully & Haugh Show” on Chicago's 670 The Score Monday morning. “It's been up for a few weeks, but I didn't think we were actually getting it called in a game like this. When I came out of the tent and just seen him running, I was just like, ‘What the hell happened?’”
What the hell, indeed.
Matt Eberflus gave the Commanders 13 free yards
Eberflus is lucky that the Bears defense bailed him out and on Chicago's next offensive possession down 12-7, Williams did what good franchises do and led what should have been a game-winning touchdown drive.
Chicago was up 15-12 with 19 seconds to go when the Commanders started their next drive on their own 24. After two plays net them just 11 yards, Washington was forced to take its final timeout in hopes of crawling just a bit closer to the end zone. It would have been an impossible Hail Mary from the Washington 35, but the Commanders' brass picked up on the fact that Eberflus already had his defense playing super prevent defense in order to try to stop a Hail Mary.
Daniels found Terry McLaurin for a quick 13-yard out to the sideline that got Washington to its 48 yard line with seconds left. That was the extra room that Daniels needed to throw up the Hail Mary on the next play. Those 13 yards were completely surrendered by Eberflus and defensive coordinator Eric Washington.
Afterward, Eberflus inexplicably defended his decision-making in that moment.
“You’re defending touchdown there,” Eberflus said, according to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports. “And them throwing the ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever that is, doesn’t really matter. It’s always going to come down to that last play.”
Eberflus says those extra yards didn't matter, but they clearly cost Chicago the game.
The whole Tyrique Stevenson situation
Daniels snapped the ball with two seconds remaining in the game, but second-year cornerback Tyrique Stevenson apparently thought the game was over. Stevenson was seen taunting the Washington crowd as the ball was snapped to Daniels and receivers started running down the field. In fact, Washington's receiving core was roughly 20 yards down the field before Stevenson even turned around.
Here's the thing, that was a terrible, fireable offense by Stevenson himself, but the young corner was clearly not paying attention before the snap and Eberflus still had all three timeouts at his disposal. How do you, as an NFL head coach, not quickly call a timeout in that situation and get that player off the field? How are you not paying attention to the end zone? Eberflus was clear in his answers above that he was hyper focused on defending the end zone, but somehow and someway he didn't see Stevenson?
Actually, why not call a timeout before that situation even happened in order to get the defense together and make sure everyone was focused?
There are high school coaches that would lose their jobs because of this type of lack of discipline from a head coach. Clearly, the Bears don't have much of it because Stevenson thought he could goof off before an actual honest-to-goodness NFL play.
The fact that Eberflus couldn't catch it and call a timeout is fireable in and of itself. Throw in the fact that Chicago's defense rushed only three on that final play, which allowed Daniels an eternity to set up the Hail Mary, and there's no reason Eberflus' key card to Halas Hall should have been working Monday morning.
