Around 9:05 a.m. Friday, Matt Eberflus sat down in front of a Chicago Bears backdrop to address reporters over Zoom.
He was still the Bears coach despite a storm of local and national criticism about his role in the team’s latest debacle during its six-game losing streak, a 23-20 Thanksgiving loss to the Detroit Lions.
The Bears had the ball at the Lions’ 41-yard line with 32 seconds to play, but only got one more play off despite having a timeout left. The Bears’ unpreparedness to get set at the line of scrimmage quickly and Eberflus’ decision to not take a timeout before rookie quarterback Caleb Williams threw the final incomplete pass have increased calls for the coach’s job.
But Eberflus said he went through a “normal operation” over the previous 18 hours. He met with President Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles as part of his usual postgame debrief Thursday night. They talked about the decisions and plays that were — and weren’t — made throughout the game.
And Eberflus planned to meet with Poles and Warren again Friday afternoon.
Asked if he was confident he’ll keep his job after the team dropped to 4-8, Eberflus said he planned to do his usual postgame after-action report and then dive into preparations for the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 8. The Bears have never fired a head coach midseason.
“Those are conversations we’ll have, and again I’m confident that I’ll be working on San Francisco and getting ready for that game,” he said. “The operation’s been normal in terms of debrief after the game, coming in, grading the tape, meeting with the coordinators. It’s been a normal operation.”
Bears players are away from Halas Hall for the weekend, a typical schedule after a Thursday game. So they won’t get their usual day-after debrief about all that went wrong in the game. That will come on Monday.
It seems to be particularly bad timing since so many players still had questions after the game about what went wrong. Asked if it worried him that players would have all weekend to stew over the outcome, Eberflus said he had spoken to a few players already and also planned to reach out to a few more later Friday.
Eberflus stuck to the same explanation he had Thursday night for not calling a timeout. The Bears planned to run a play to the middle of the field with 10-15 seconds left and then call a timeout to set up a shorter field goal for kicker Cairo Santos.
But he did accept responsibility for it not working out.
“Ultimately all these decisions are my decision,” he said. “I take full accountability for them, and we didn’t get it done and it’s unfortunate for the players, for the fans.”
Eberflus said he watched the entire last drive with offensive coordinator Thomas Brown on Friday morning. He also talked with Brown and Williams about it together as they broke down why the Bears didn’t get set at the line of scrimmage quickly.
When the Bears took too long to get set, Williams changed the play to an end zone shot to wide receiver Rome Odunze, figuring the team only had time for one more play. The Bears snapped the ball with six seconds to play.
“Operation is on everybody,” Eberflus said. “It’s on me first and then it’s on everybody that’s operating on offense. So we were just hoping that we’d get that play off in time and that didn’t happen. Again, that’s ultimately on me.
“He was trying to win the game at that point.”
The vibe of the Bears postgame locker room Thursday night was an odd one as players dealt with their anger, disappointment and confusion about the outcome – the Bears’ fourth game decided on the final play during their losing streak.
So the players’ tone after a weekend off will be worth examining Monday. The Bears have had very few normal weeks in the last month-plus following their losses to the Washington Commanders on a Hail Mary, the Green Bay Packers on a blocked field goal and the Minnesota Vikings in overtime. In between those games, the Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and replaced him with Brown.
As of Friday morning, Eberflus hadn’t suffered the same fate.
If Warren and Poles continue to keep him in place, the coach faces a massive challenge in trying to keep his players focused over the final five games of the regular season. On Thursday night, when asked about that task, Eberflus offered his usual mantra of players sticking together.
“We’ve just got to keep pulling together, keep believing in each other,” he said. “I know these games are tight, losing by one, losing by three a couple of times, losing by five. I get that, but we’re right there. We’re right there and we’ve just got to keep plugging along, and it’s going to crack. It’s one more crack of the hammer, and it’s going to crack. The guys keep believing, keep fighting and we’re right there.”