Eberflus gone!

[QED]

Bears fired him this morning.

"Before this season, the Chicago Bears had never fired a coach during a season, a fact they were proud of.

They've also never experienced some of the late-game coaching fiascos they've had this season, especially what happened on Thanksgiving with everyone watching.



Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will take over the remainder of the season, according to multiple reports."

https://sports.yahoo.com/bears-move-on-from-coach-matt-eberflus-after-horrendous-last-second-loss-to-lions-172311898.html

[City Lights]

1. Good riddance!

Seeing he was fired today brought a big smile to my face!

[GreenWave]

2. So that was a name and not some dental procedure?

Who knew?

[rsdsharp]

3. I think his defending the clock management clusterfuck was the final straw.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Agreed

The announcers were saying, in real time, "What are they doing?!?".
Then, he says he thinks they managed it well?
Everybody watching knows the didn't manage it well. They didn't manage it at all!

[BOSSHOG]

35. I was shouting at the TV

I didn’t care who won but blow the last 33 seconds of a game deep in the opponents territory when you had a timeout? Good for the Lions. They won a game the way the Chiefs have been winning lately, via opponents errors.

[yourout]

4. Aw. Come on you guys needed to give him at least two more years.

Says this packer fan.

[Darkstar53142]

15. Same old bears.

[cloudbase]

5. I hope they gave him a watch as a parting present.

[Drum]

7. 👆Thread Winner 🏆

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Why?

After yesterday, he proved he doesn't know how to read a clock!

[cloudbase]

19. It's never too late to learn.

[underpants]

27. Well the second hand is really the third hand so that's confusing

and finding any of them on a digital clock…forget about it


First time in 105 years the Bears have fired a head coach during the season.

[ProfessorGAC]

30. Fun Fact

The only time in team history that a head coach didn't finish the season was in 1942.
That was when Halas stepped down to go off to fight world war two!

[underpants]

31. 1919 Rose Bowl Lakes Navy Bluejackets 17 - Mare Island Marines 0

Incredible story.

Re-upped in the Navy at 47.
Coached played sold tickets stripped Gil Thorpe and returned it for 98 yards.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Halas

The quote i think from Butkus was that “he throws nickels around like manhole covers”

[ProfessorGAC]

32. I Think That Was Ditka

The reason why he left for Dallas, which he really didn't want to do.
Later, they became friends & Ditka came back to coach the team!

[underpants]

33. Yes

Butkus was the first name that popped into my mind

[Srkdqltr]

6. Im sure the Lions were profusely greatful. I'm sure he was appreciated in Detroit.

In fact I know he was.

[RockRaven]

8. 3rd time in a row they draft a QB in the first round and then switch HC (and OC)

after one season, or less. I believe the NFL conventional wisdom says that is not best practices.

[underpants]

29. Yeah that's not good.

[louis-t]

9. We were joking last night about his next job.

Wal-Mart greeter.
"Would you like fries with that?"
"I don't care if you used to be a football coach, just get the soap off the hood."

Totally expected and deserved. One game ends terribly, not a big deal. The last 5 games they lost because of poor coaching?

[True Dough]

10. I guess you could say

he's on a timeout -- a permanent one!

[moniss]

11. I would also point out the decision to

try for the 2pt PAT. You know you don't have the strongest O line and best execution but you go for 2? So if they take 1 then the field goal issue at the end would have been for a win and not just overtime. According to statmuse they've gone for it 9 times and made it 3 times. Not a great percentage of success and especially to try against a team like Detroit. They went for it against the Packers and failed so that blocked field goal wouldn't have mattered as bad because they would have been tied and then had overtime. Eberflus and the fans were bellyaching about the refs "missing the call" and saying the Packers should have been called for a penalty for assistance but they said not a peep about a missed face mask call on an O lineman just a little before on that drive. Replay showed it clear as day. If that one had been called they wouldn't have even gotten to field goal range. Bottom line is the Bears bellyaching is nonsense and they wouldn't be in those situations if they had better management choosing better coaches. But you can't fire the family as Dallas knows all too well.

[QED]

12. I think the 2 pt PATs are rarely successful

and as you said, the Bears' O line just isn't that strong.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Calls Get Miszed All The Time

Allen was clearly brought down by the face mask on the play where he melted down & got the unsportsmanlike penalty.
Missed calls are part of the game.
They shouldn't complain about that because I think it evens out in the end.

[moniss]

20. Yes indeed and

the NFL started down a dangerous path with the "review and challenge" approach to things that are by nature dynamic. The push to expand the scope of included things in the "do-over" aspect of reviewing calls and then changing them moves the game towards an aspect of trying to hold players and officials to an "exact" sort of standard when bodies are flying around at high speed and what may look purposeful in slow motion may have been in real time just extraneous movement of a limb due to speed and effort to change direction for example.

The particular face mask call I mentioned was in the Bear/Packer game where at the end several plays prior to their field goal attempt they had a play where the TV people were showing the replay just for the purpose of showing how the play went. They never mentioned the face-mask call that should have been made. It was just something I caught when watching the game highlights. In the replay you see a Packer defensive lineman pushing into the rush from Williams left and you see a Bear offensive lineman with his hand up in the face-mask and pulling the head around trying to slow the rush. It looks like the hand starts at the face-mask and as the motion and effort of the Packer continues the hand goes to the inside edge of the helmet by the straps also.

So realistically if the Bears wanted to bellyache about a missed call on the blocked field goal at the end of that drive then the actuality is if the prior call had been made for the face-mask they may have been backed up even further and therefore not have been in field goal position at all. Many possibilities of outcome of course but them yapping about a missed call is pretty one-sided regarding that whole drive.

[LisaM]

22. I think you're right.

In fact, we were saying that the fact that the Lions missed a field goal might have worked in our favor. Chicago clearly decided to play for a tie. If they'd gone for a win they might have gotten it - our defense was down to chewing gum and old tire rubber at that point, with all the injuries.

I also think the QB screwed up the clock. I swear I saw him look up at it after the play, and that's when he realized there was no time left.

[moniss]

23. Yes and I agree with

blame to the coaching staff but as many have pointed out the players have all been in that short time situation in games many times and it is practiced constantly. So when the confusion was happening they should have used the timeout. Caleb could call it himself along with many others. As was pointed out when they lined up with 14 seconds left you had time to have a receiver take a quick 5 yards and kneel down to end the play and then immediately signal for time out. There would have been still about 4 seconds left and now you can take a bit to calm down and get the field goal unit out there. It seemed the line and the receivers weren't even sure of the play and maybe some went with one thing and some with another.

Realistically Eberflus could also be criticized for not using that last time out when he had 30+ seconds left to try and calm down a team that had just made some plays but also some bad mistakes. Calm them down, lay it out what the next plays need to be, go over the time situation and remind everybody there are now no timeouts. That is standard good coaching practice whether it's football or basketball.

I feel Caleb Williams will be a very good quarterback if the Bears organization doesn't screw it up like they did with Justin Fields. I always thought Fields was a good guy in a tough situation and maybe he wasn't going to be Patrick Mahomes but the Bears coaching etc. was bad for this guy and his development. It was good to see him able to get to a coach like Mike Tomlin who could get things back on track for Fields. He played well and depending on what the Steelers do with Russell Wilson they can keep Fields and be OK or Fields can now go to another team and be a solid starter. If he had stayed in Chicago it may have ruined him. They kept changing what they were telling the guy he should be for them. For awhile it was pass and be a running quarterback. Then it was stay back and be a passer even though they didn't have a line to protect him. Mike Tomlin gave Fields an offensive system to work within rather than just lining the guy up on a "make it up as we go" fashion.

Even though I live in Wisconsin and I'm less of a Packer fan than in days of old I don't "hate" the Bears and maybe that comes from me being from long ago. I grew up watching 2 of the greatest franchises in sports history play each other hard every game and give it all they had. It was great football and no matter who won it was great to watch two of the best ever do their best against each other. That's why it is sad to me to see how the Bears have struggled for so long with all of these bad management/coaching decisions. I know some Packer fans are happy to beat the Bears by big scores. I'm not one of them because I don't find that to be exciting football. I also don't like people gloating and ridiculing them like Aaron Rodgers did. I was never a fan of Aaron Rodgers during his entire time in Green Bay.

Best of luck to Chicago and I'm hoping you get a great tough coach and he gets great coordinators etc. so we can have some more of these great hard fought games that don't turn on bloopers and mistakes or don't become blowouts. I want to see your receivers line up and try to beat my defenders and your running backs trying to break tackles and ours to do the same and when it's all over no matter who wins we can say we watched 2 teams in the toughest division in the NFL play a great game.

[LisaM]

25. Actually, I'm a Lions' fan.

But I do like that the NFC North has some old time gritty teams, except for those interlopers, the Vikings. I generally like the Packers but like you, found Aaron Rodgers increasingly unlikeable (I felt the same about Cousins).

I like Packers' fans. We went to a Seahawks/Packers game years ago in the old Kingdome, and you couldn't get a beer after halftime on the 300 level. The Packers' fans had drunk it all. I had to go get the more expensive beer in the 200 level!

[a kennedy]

13. Now, on a college level, wish Fickell would get fired....Badgers football coach....

Ugh…..and the QB stinks too. First time the Badgers aren’t going to a bowl game in 22 years!!!!!

[yourout]

14. Fickell is a fraud.

It will be even worse next year.

[LisaM]

21. I don't like Fickell either.

Nor do I like Fleck, for that matter, but I had fun with the names Fleck and Fickell. For example, you can put "what the...?" in front of either name.

Fleck is wearing thin with me, too. I am tired of his "row the boat" line, plus he dresses like Jim Tressel (on purpose, I guess).

[True Dough]

24. Poor Matt...

NFL Memes
@NFL_Memes

Legend has it Matt Eberflus is still standing on the sideline at Ford Field waiting to use his final timeout.

[underpants]

26. Ouch! 😆

First time in 105 years the Bears have fired a head coach during the season.

[True Dough]

28. That's one way

to be the answer to a trivia question.

[global1]

34. Great Pic - ROTFL. Hysterically!!!! nt

[Morbius]

36. Hallelujah.

It's entirely possible that if Eberflus had called that timeout the Bears would have lost anyway. Lions are pretty damn good, y'know. His choice to save it for a field goal try when his rookie quarterback was confused and his team had difficulty getting the play in guaranteed the loss. But it's more than the Detroit loss.

It's the Green Bay loss when he didn't even try to get the ball closer for a higher-percentage field goal kick.

It's the Washington loss when he allowed the Commanders an easy 13 yard completion to get closer for a Hail Mary try. And when one of his starting cornerbacks was taunting fans while the play was underway, and Eberflus doesn't even punish him. That sends the wrong message about accountability.

It's hiring Shane Waldron, clearly the wrong offensive coordinator.

And it's this: he was kept last year because of the belief that his defensive play-calling was the reason the defense was pretty good, when time has shown it's the personnel that has made that defense good (not elite, but good), not so much the coaching.

In short, the guy hasn't done much of anything to make his team winners and in fact can be shown to have done a lot to make his team losers.

Let's hope the next coach they hire isn't named "Matt". I just hope making Thomas Brown interim head coach doesn't set Caleb's development, which is obviously the most important thing at this point.

Oh and one more thought: if the Bears had waited until the end of the season, some people would be calling for Ryan Poles' head ... not that there aren't some now. Getting rid of Eberflus now takes some of the pressure off Poles. People will rightly demand he get the next selection right, but at least he'll be around to make that selection.