There is much to say at this point. Matt Eberflus had everything in front of him. The Chicago Bears crushed Jacksonville in London to reach 4-2. They had the bye week and plenty of time to prepare for a big matchup with the Washington Commanders. It is incredible how fast things can change in a month. Since the final whistle of that trip overseas, the Bears have lost three in a row. Washington came with a gut punch on the Hail Mary. Arizona wasn’t even a contest. Now the humiliation reaches a new level as they fall to the previous 2-7 New England Patriots at home.
Predictably, the offense failed to show up again. Despite tremendous field position throughout the first half, they only managed three points and punted four times. Best of all, yet another defensive breakdown in the final seconds handed the Patriots an easy field goal to go up 13-3. It was a carbon copy of last week in Arizona. Concerns were already growing that Eberflus had lost the locker. A performance like that should all but cement it. The easy part of the schedule is over. It’s nothing but good teams left.
The Bears are done, and so is Eberflus.
He replaced the offensive staff. He replaced the quarterback. This team still looks like a dumpster fire way too often. It would be one thing if the Bears didn’t have the talent to compete. Yet we’ve already seen that isn’t the case. They almost knocked off Washington and Houston. All of their problems keep getting traced back to bad coaching. They don’t execute well in crucial moments like 3rd down and the red zone. Eberflus burns too many challenges and timeouts for minimal gain. The only argument in his favor is the play of the Bears defense, which should not be good enough.
People are already turning on Williams for his listless play. Forget that. His struggles are easily traced back to Matt Eberflus. He hired Waldron as the offensive coordinator. He chose not to fire offensive line coach Chris Morgan despite evidence he might not be good enough at his job. To say nothing of the rumblings players feel he needlessly overworks them in practice. The justification for keeping Eberflus in charge any further this season has evaporated. Knowing the Bears, they won’t fire him midseason. It’s just not what they do.
That doesn’t change the fact they should. It’s over.
