Friday morning Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus gave a press conference where he provided an update on the state of the franchise in the wake of Thursday’s loss to the Detroit Lions, which dropped the team to 4-8 on the season, and into last place in the NFC North.
Hours later the state of the franchise no longer included him as the head coach.
Eberflus was fired by the team after Thursday’s disastrous loss to the Lions, the team’s sixth-straight defeat. The loss to Detroit also included the team’s latest late-game meltdown, dating back to the team’s loss to the Washington Commanders back at the end of October. With just seconds remaining in that game, the Bears held a 15-12 lead and were just moments away from improving to 5-2 on the season.
But then Jayden Daniels connected on a Hail Mary on the game’s final play to give Washington an 18-15 win, dropping Chicago to 4-3 and kicking off a six-game losing streak.
Thursday’s loss to the Lions was another late-game disaster. After falling down 23-7 in the second half the Bears scored 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to close within a field goal. Chicago had a chance to force overtime late in the game after Caleb Williams drove the Bears into field goal range after starting their final drive of the game on their own 1-yard line. But with Chicago holding a timeout and having more than 30 seconds to work with, Williams took a sack and then the offense ran a play, a pass that fell incomplete as time ran out. Chicago left the field with that final timeout still in their hands.
After the game, Eberflus defended the team’s end-game management, saying it was done the “right way” at the end.
“I like what we did there,” Eberflus said. “Again, once it’s under seven [seconds], you’re going to call a timeout there — actually under 12, and then really you don’t have an option because it’s third to fourth, you have to throw it into the end zone then.
“To me it’s — I think we handled it the right way, I do believe that you just rerack the play, get it in bounds and call timeout, and that’s why we held it and didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”
It seems the front office disagreed:
Thomas Brown will take over on an interim basis, marking his second promotion this season. Brown began the year as their passing game coordinator but took over as the offensive coordinator after the team fired Shane Waldron.
Now he adds interim head coach of the Bears to a growing resume.