It was too much to expect the Chicago Bears to beat the Detroit Lions. One team is the hottest in the NFL. The other has suffered a series of devastating defeats over the past two months. In truth, the Bears’ lopsided loss in Detroit was predictable for one reason and one reason only: the gulf between the head coaches. It has become abundantly clear over the past three years that Dan Campbell is a master of motivation and staff-building for the Lions. He’s assembled two outstanding assistants, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn. Matt Eberflus has watched three coordinators leave because they were terrible.
More than anything else, it was once again a sign that the Bears head coach had no concept of situational awareness. He once again needlessly burned timeouts on pointless challenges. The defense couldn’t get off the field on third down in the first half. Offensively, they couldn’t run the ball to save their lives, leaving Caleb Williams in a difficult spot once again.
Best of all? More dumb mistakes cost them a chance at an epic comeback, including the inexplicable refusal to spend his final timeout to preserve a game-tying field goal. It’s a familiar story at this point. The inferiority was crystal clear. What else do the Bears need to see at this point? Eberflus doesn’t need or deserve any further games for evaluation.
People will use the excuse of the team instigating a rebuild during his first year in Chicago, prompting him to go 3-14 that first season. Here’s the thing. John Fox won five games despite Ryan Pace doing the same thing in 2015. Eberflus has been handed a much better roster than Fox had, particularly at quarterback with Justin Fields and now Caleb Williams. For him to have the longest losing streak in Bears history (14 games) and be two more away from the second-longest (8 games) tells you how overmatched he is for this job.
The McCaskeys won’t fire him midseason. They have never done that since taking ownership of the franchise in 1983. If Marc Trestman didn’t get the boot after the dumpster fire of 2014, Matt Eberflus won’t either. This means fans must endure five more games of this nonsense. Thomas Brown remains a candidate for the job despite a rough first half. He pulled things together in the second, but it was too late. Eberflus couldn’t get a stop from his defense when needed, which should kill any remaining arguments for keeping him.
