People aren’t happy with Matt Eberflus lately. That is easy to understand. After a 3-4 start to his career as Chicago Bears head coach, things took an inexplicable nose dive with a 14-game losing streak. It was the longest in franchise history. What made it worse was the apparent regression of Justin Fields at quarterback, along with the abysmal showing on defense, with at least 25 points allowed in every game during that streak. Considering Eberflus is supposedly a defensive specialist, that was a bad look.
Things reached a crisis point last Sunday. Chicago built a 28-7 lead going into the 4th quarter. Then everything unraveled. Fields committed two ugly turnovers. The defense allowed 17 unanswered points, and Eberflus committed a grave blunder by going for a 4th down with under three minutes left rather than taking the lead on a makeable field goal. The Bears lost 31-28. It felt like a backbreaking loss that would end up costing people their jobs.
Even worse, the team had to go on the road to Washington on short rest for Thursday Night Football. Everybody predicted they would get destroyed by a Commanders team featuring a productive offense and one of the NFL’s best defensive lines. They were disappointed.
What stood out the most about the Bears’ 40-20 drubbing of Washington was how hard everybody played. They would’ve come out flat if the locker room were truly growing fed up with Eberflus. It would’ve been mistakes everywhere, a lack of effort, and a beatdown from the opening whistle. Instead, Fields was terrific with four touchdown passes. Despite seeing their entire secondary decimated by injuries, even the defense had five sacks and held the Commanders to 20 points. It was enough to finally break the losing streak.
People can talk about Matt Eberflus’ game management and ability to maximize the defense. However, that game proved the man has the ability to keep his team focused even amid dark times. Under almost any other coach, the Bears would’ve crumbled after their heartbreaking loss against Denver. Nobody would’ve blamed them. Instead, they rebounded with a convincing victory. Now they have games against Minnesota and Las Vegas up next. Both are 1-3. It isn’t ridiculous to think Chicago can be 3-4 by the end of October with a chance to reach .500 in Los Angeles.
If they do, much of the credit must go to Eberflus for making sure they kept trusting the process.
