Until this season, the Chicago Bears had never fired a coach in a single season, something they were proud of.
They’ve also never had the kind of late-inning coaching disaster they have this season, especially with everyone watching Thanksgiving.
Eberflus will take advantage of a late-night loss to the Detroit Lions for his next job. The Bears grew impatient in the final minutes, allowing about 25 seconds of time instead of calling a timeout in a 23-20 loss to the Lions. Eberflus met with the media on Friday morning and was fired shortly after. The Bears have fired a head coach for the first time this season.
According to multiple reports, offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will take over until the end of the season.
The Bears have had some losses filled with strange coaching decisions, including a loss to the Lions and a Hail Mary loss to the Washington Giants. No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams struggled for most of his rookie season before offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired and the Bears quickly fell out of playoff contention. Brown was the game coordinator before Waldron was fired.
The Bears will move forward, and the last memory their fans will have of Eberflus will be how his team made another play in the final seconds.
Matt Eberflus has been struggling with the Bears
Eberflus’ first season ended with a 3-14 record, but Eberflus kept his job. The next season started just as poorly, with a 2-7 record. But Eberflus rallied to win five of his final eight matches, saving his job. It was a fun game, but ultimately damaging because it meant Eberflus would keep his job for another season.
The 2024 season didn’t start badly. They were 4-2 at halftime, although some weaker opponents helped. After the breakup it got ugly. Williams began to back away. The Bears lost to the Washington Giants on a Hail Mary that came after the Bears had given up enough yards to give Washington a long punt, a decision that Eberflus said “didn’t really matter.” A few weeks later, the Bears had a chance to beat the Green Bay Packers, but settled for a 46-yard field goal. The Packers said they know Cairo Santos has a chance Low trajectory on his shotsWhich allowed them to prevent the last attempt. Eberflus stuck to that decision and tried not to get close. An overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings may have made it seem like the Bears were getting better, but the embarrassing loss to the Lions erased that notion.
On Thanksgiving Day, the Bears trailed 16-0 at halftime and 23-20 in the final minute. A sack with about 30 seconds remaining put the Bears back and then chaos broke out. Williams looked confused as he tried to make the team. The shot didn’t come until six seconds later. Williams threw an incomplete deep throw after the clock ran out. The Bears got a timeout, but didn’t take advantage of it.
You won’t find many NFL teams that finish the game this poorly.
Who drives the bears?
The bears are not in bad shape. 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 but the roster is very good and Williams has shown enough that a good coaching candidate could see the benefits of working with him.
After the Bears made the poor decision to go with a defensive-minded coach in Iberflus while the rest of the league hires offensive smarts, it seems a good bet that the Bears’ next coach will have offensive experience.
There’s reason to believe better days lie ahead for the Bears, which would be good for a franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl in nearly four decades. Eberflus was wrong and it took the Bears another year to admit it.
Eberflus’ time in the spotlight came to an end on Thanksgiving.
