Prior to this season, the Chicago Bears had never fired a coach during the season, something they were proud of.
They’ve also never experienced some of the late-game coaching fiascos they’ve had this season, especially what happened on Thanksgiving with everyone watching.
Eberflus will take the last time out of the loss to the Detroit Lions in his next job. A final-minute debacle in which the Bears let about 25 seconds run away instead of calling a timeout in a 23-20 loss to the Lions was the end of the Bears’ patience. Eberflus met with the media on Friday morning and was fired shortly after, according to multiple reports. It’s the first time the Bears have fired a head coach during the season.
According to multiple reports, offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will take over for the rest of the season.
The Bears suffered several losses punctuated by odd coaching decisions, including a loss to the Lions and a Hail Mary loss to the Washington Commanders. First overall pick Caleb Williams struggled for most of his rookie season before offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired and the Bears were quickly out of playoff contention. Brown was the passing coordinator before Waldron’s firing.
The Bears will move on, and their fans’ last memory of Eberflus will be his team blowing another game in the final seconds.
Matt Eberflus had a rough time with the Bears
Eberflus’ first season ended with a 3-14 record, but Eberflus kept his job. The following season started just as poorly, with a 2-7 record. But Eberflus won five of his last eight games, saving his job. It was a fun stretch, but ultimately damaging because it meant Eberflus kept his job for another season.
The 2024 season didn’t start so badly. They were 4-2 at the bye, although some weak opponents helped. It was ugly after the bye. Williams began to retreat. The Bears lost to the Washington Commanders on the bye, which came after the Bears gave up only as many yards as Washington got on a long throw, a decision Eberflus said “really didn’t matter.” A few weeks later, the Bears were in position to beat the Green Bay Packers, but settled for a 46-yard field goal attempt that was blocked. The Packers said they knew kicker Cairo Santos had a low trajectory on his kicks, allowing them to block the final attempt. Eberflus stood by his decision not to approach. An overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings gave the impression that the Bears might have gotten a little better, but an embarrassing loss to the Lions erased that notion.
On Thanksgiving, the Bears rallied from a 16-0 halftime deficit and trailed 23-20 in the final minute. A sack with about 30 seconds left stopped the Bears, and then chaos ensued. Williams looked like a confused rookie trying to make a team. The flash came only after six seconds. Williams threw deep and incomplete as time expired. The Bears had a time limit, but they did not use it.
You won’t find many NFL teams as bad as this one.
Who will train the bears?
The situation of the Bears is not bad. The bar for success is low. Chicago has missed the playoffs in 12 of the last 14 seasons. They haven’t won a playoff game since the end of the 2010 season. However, the roster is quite good and Williams has shown enough that a good coaching candidate sees the positives in working with him.
After the Bears made the wrong decision to go with a defensive minded coach in Eberflus when the rest of the league was hiring offensive minds, it seems like a good bet that the next Bears coach will have an offensive background.
There are reasons to believe the Bears have brighter days ahead, which would be nice for a franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl in nearly four decades. Eberflus wasn’t the right fit, and it took the Bears another year to admit it.
In the spotlight game on Thanksgiving Day, Eberflus’ time ran out.