We all know the story by now. There were multiple reasons why Matt Eberflus was fired as Chicago Bears head coach. It started with the longest losing streak in franchise history between 2022 and 2023. Then, it was the painful 4th quarter collapses despite holding double-digit leads. Hemorraging assistant coaches, especially on the offensive side of the ball, didn’t help. Worst of all, it was his lack of accountability whenever it was clear he was responsible for costing the team winnable games. What happened in Detroit was merely the final straw.
Failing to call timeout with 30 seconds left and just outside field goal range is a gaffe even high school coaches wouldn’t make. Bill Cowher said it best. He just froze. There is no other way to put it. Eberflus tried to deflect after the game, stating quarterback Caleb Williams didn’t do a good enough job getting up to the line of scrimmage. That only pissed people off more. Well, get ready. Courtney Cronin of ESPN added one final wrinkle to the disaster that helps encapsulate how total the disaster was.
Internally, the fact that no timeout was called raised questions among the front office and coaching staff over in-game management, team sources said. While the decision to call timeouts, throw a challenge flag or go for it on fourth down ultimately rests on the head coach, Eberflus’ headset allows him to communicate with coaches upstairs in the booth, including those on staff responsible for game management decisions.
“There’s a system that’s broke and wasn’t fixed,” a team source said.
Think about that. There were literal coaches in the booth there to help with an exact situation like that. All Eberflus had to do was listen to them since it sounded like they were urging him to take the timeout. Either that or the people he appointed to make that determination didn’t judge the situation warranted it, which would be even worse. Either way, this revelation is damning for the former head coach. For all the times he insisted the team practiced for exact situations like that, you’d think they never could’ve dreamed it would ever come up.
It is okay to feel sorry for a man losing his job. At the same time, people are justifiably fired for incompetence all the time. It can’t be any different in the NFL. Matt Eberflus had plenty of chances to learn from his mistakes. Probably more than he should’ve. He has nobody to blame but himself for how everything ended. The Bears gave him all the resources required for success, and he squandered them.
