5 biggest failures in Matt Eberflus' stint as Bears HC feat. Mismanaging transition from Justin Fields to Caleb Williams
Matt Eberflus' tenure as the Bears head coach is over and now Chicago has to go and rebuild again. It concludes yet another inglorious chapter in the NFC North franchise's recent history as they keep moving from coaches to general managers to quarterbacks in order to establish themselves as contenders in the league.
Whatever the Bears' faults in this whole scenario as an organization, it is also clear, though, that Matt Eberflus did himself no favors. He leaves Chicago with a 4-8 record, which is the only losing ratio in the division. Here are five of his biggest failings during his time in the Windy City.
Matt Eberflus' top failings from his time as Bears HC
#5 - Wretched away form
To succeed as a franchise in the NFL, one has to win games both home and away. That is the nature of the sport and Matt Eberflus never found out the second part of that puzzle. He had a 3-19 record in his tenure with the Bears. It is so horrendous that it needs emphasizing. In over two years, there were only three times that the head coach got onto a plane coming back to Chicago happy that his team had picked up a win.
His record on Sundays, when most NFL games take place, was even worse. He took them on the road 18 times on that day and lost all of them. It showed that without home support and with the whole world watching, the Bears regularly faltered under Matt Eberflus. It showed a lack of toughness that is the hallmark of all winning teams.
#4 - Failure to prepare players for critical situations
When we talk about mental toughness, we cannot overlook the very last play Matt Eberflus oversaw in his Bears' career. In Week 13 of the 2024 NFL season, with the scores 23-20 in favor of the Lions in Detroit, he failed to call a timeout for a game-tying field goal and let the clock expire.
One could understand why he had held on to the timeout because he expected Caleb Williams to get one more play in before time expired. The head coach could then have used the timeout to let his kicker, who had missed crucial field goals in the previous two games, get ready for a high-pressure attempt. But when the rookie quarterback could not get the play off in time, Matt Eberflus froze.
This was just the latest instance of his players unable to function with the game on the line. There was the aforementioned missed field goal attempt against the Packers and who can forget the Washington Commanders win with a Hail Mary. Everything screamed a lack of preparation in crucial moments.
#3 - Lack of accountability
Beyond failing to prepare his players to take charge in crucial situations or on the road when the conditions were unfamiliar, Matt Eberflus failed to take any accountability for the way the results went. After the loss against the Lions on Thanksgiving Day, he threw Caleb Williams under the bus instead of self-examining why he failed to call a timeout when his rookie was struggling.
Caleb Williams certainly deserves his share of blame in the situation. But a little support from the coach, who is supposed to be a leader, would have helped. This was not a one-off instance either of Matt Eberflus failing to shoulder his responsibilities. Just a few weeks ago, former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired as he was made a scapegoat for the Bears' offensive struggles.
#2 - Losing the locker room
Matt Eberflus' press conference and demeanor were poor, to say the least, and it seemed clear that he had lost the locker room after the defeat to the Lions. After the game, Keenan Allen came out and said that he felt the players did enough to win the game. Caleb Williams blamed the communication from the sidelines for his hesitation in getting off the snap on the last play. D.J. Moore was equally baffled.
When one had rookies and veterans uniting and publicly contradicting the head coach, it effectively signaled the end of Matt Eberflus' tenure. However, generally, when players come out in the open, it also signifies that frustration with the coaching team has been building for some time
#1 - Mismanaging transition from Justin Fields to Caleb Williams
Ultimately, Matt Eberflus' biggest failure as head coach was to mismanage the transition from Justin Fields to Caleb Williams. They let a young quarterback walk away because they went all-in on the first overall pick in this year's draft. However, the coaching team never got the best out of their starting quarterback.
They moved on from Luke Getsy after last season and settled on Shane Waldron as the offensive coordinator for 2024. But that did not work out. Bears fans are also left to wonder what might have been if they had hired Kliff Kingsbury in that position, who is getting the best out of Jayden Daniels in Washington. It might be that the Commanders' offensive coordinator gets the last laugh as he is rumored to be among the candidates to take over from Matt Eberflus permanently in 2025.