You’re back there again, aren’t you Chicago? Right back in that place of emotional uncertainty. Right back in that all-too-familiar state of bewilderment and agitation. Right back in the vortex of confusion where doubt always feels like the default setting.
There’s suddenly renewed doubt in the coaching leadership of your beloved Bears, isn’t there? Doubt in the true direction of the organization. Doubt that this 35-year stretch of perpetual mediocrity will ever end.
Those three weeks of joy recently from the Bears? That three-game winning streak that seemed to legitimize this year’s squad as a fun upstart playoff contender? The idea that the escalator was headed up — and hopefully for years to come — with a talented, hungry team and a rookie quarterback who has all the prerequisites to be an NFL star?
That all felt so exhilarating.
Then Sunday happened.
The “Debacle Near D.C.”
Washington Commanders 18, Bears 15.
But it wasn’t just that final score. It was the painful path the Bears took to get there with a messy afternoon somehow salvaged, then astonishingly ruined on the final play.
Hail Mary?
Mother of God!!!
Yes, that final pass from Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels did sail 52 yards into the end zone at Northwest Stadium, tipped upward from a seven-player scrum and into the arms of receiver Noah Brown across the goal line.
Check that: uncovered receiver Noah Brown, who was left all alone after Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson short-circuited on the final snap, more focused on interacting with fans during the play than remembering his duties for finishing the win.
Stevenson was supposed to be shadowing Brown, supposed to be boxing out the 6-foot-2 receiver, supposed to be letting safety Kevin Byard handle the job as the designated jumper on the play.
Instead, Stevenson first lost his mind, then lost Brown, then lost the game, jumping the highest above that seven-player mosh pit and deflecting the football into the air. Into the end zone. Right to Brown.
As the kids might say, mess around and find out.
Or as Bears tight end Cole Kmet more delicately put it Monday: “It’s a really good lesson for everybody to learn from in terms of how to respect the game. We had examples of that throughout the game and — quite frankly throughout the week of practice — where there are moments when maybe some guys lay off here and there.
“Those are the types of things that can happen when you do that for just a split second. It doesn’t always back come to bite you in the butt. But when it does, it hurts.”
Ouch.
On the play before that Hail Mary, Bears coach Matt Eberflus also chose not to contest any part of a 13-yard completion to Terry McLaurin, the gain that put Daniels in range of reaching the end zone with his final pass.
And three possessions before that? The Bears blew their first opportunity to produce a go-ahead touchdown when Eberflus gave offensive coordinator Shane Waldron the green light for a gimmick play on first-and-goal from the 1.
That play — handoff to Doug Kramer Jr., of course — went haywire, too. At the mesh point, Kramer never secured Caleb Williams’ handoff and, instead, the ball spit into the possession of Commanders defensive lineman Johnny Newton for the game’s only turnover.
“It’s a 1-yard play,” Eberflus said after the game. “We felt that a big guy like that taking a dive could do that.”
After months of reminding Williams how much talent he had around him — Kmet, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze, D’Andre Swift, etc. — and reinforcing for the young quarterback to keep things simple without trying to do too much, the coaching staff went for style points in a huge moment Sunday and wound up with a major mess.
Suddenly you were right back there, weren’t you, Chicago? Back in the archive of gut-wrenching Bears losses. Back in all those flummoxed, frenzied, frustrated feels.
Back at Marc Trestman’s decision to try a 47-yard field goal on second down in overtime at the Metrodome in 2013.
Back at Rodgers-to-Cobb.
Back at the “double doink.”
Back inside the Chargers fiasco of 2019. (Also in Week 8 and on the final Sunday of October, for whatever that’s worth.)
Back, maybe even, at Cleveland Browns Stadium last December when the Bears coughed up a 17-0 lead and lost 20-17. That game ended when a potential game-winning, 45-yard Hail Mary pass was deflected out of a scrum, hit Bears receiver Darnell Mooney in the hands and the belly but then caromed off his foot for an interception.
That whole ordeal left an entire locker room stunned and crestfallen.
In different ways, Sunday’s crushing ending felt similar to all those previous calamities.
So why has Eberflus had such difficulty finding a stern tone with his public messaging for the Bears’ latest loss?
Why, after such a sloppy performance with such a disastrous ending Sunday, was he at a lectern inside Northwest Stadium spending so much time praising his team instead of identifying so many aspects of the performance as unacceptable?
“I was really excited at how they battled back to have a chance to win that game,” Eberflus said. “It’s important to look at that too.”
Why has Eberflus seemed reluctant to administer consequences to Stevenson for his immature display at such a big moment in the season?
And why, on Monday afternoon, was the Bears coach still stubbornly defending some of the previous day’s worst missteps?
The handoff to Kramer? That, Eberflus asserted, was a play he and Waldron decided would be their top choice down at the goal line.
“We felt good about that play,” he said. “We practiced that play. … We had other plays to go to after that. Again, we just have to be better with the execution of the handoff there.”
Or call a different play. To a different player who is used to getting the football.
Even Moore was rowing that boat, using his regular Monday appearance on WSCR 670-AM to criticize the give to Kramer, which Moore witnessed as he came out of the blue medical tent.
“I don’t know the reason behind the play call,” Moore said. “It’s been up for a few weeks, but I didn’t think we were actually getting it called in a game like this. When I came out of the tent and saw him running, I was just like, ‘What the hell happened?’”
The Bears’ decision not to defend that penultimate Commanders completion — Daniels to McLaurin for 13 key yards — with 6 seconds left also registered as “What the hell happened?” worthy.
Eberflus said he was, in part, concerned that contesting a shorter pass might create a potential chase situation for his cornerbacks if the Commanders instead converted that play into a final Hail Mary, a risk-reward calculus he was apparently not interested in.
Byard, though, scratched his head at that particular call, a team captain and ninth-year veteran who wasn’t so sure the Bears had put themselves in the best position to win.
“I’ve had the discussion with Flus about it,” he said Monday. “He has his feelings about it. There are a lot of different ways you can defend those plays. But me personally? I think in that scenario, we possibly could’ve had the corners pressed up. Because (Washington) ran two out cuts. And the play was called just to get a couple more yards to throw it down the field.”
By conceding that completion, Eberflus shortened the range of Daniels’ final pass by, well, 13 yards. From 65 down to 52.
“If we don’t get that play,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said Sunday, “then we’re out of gas.”
So did Eberflus really rationalize that there wasn’t much difference between a 65-yard shot at the end zone and a 52-yarder?
“It’s going to land somewhere,” he said. “But you’re going to end up playing the same type of defense. It’s going to land somewhere in that area of how far he can throw it. So 60, 65 yards. Somewhere in there.”
“Somewhere in there” ended up being right in Brown’s bread basket.
And Jaylon Johnson — also a Monday regular on WSCR 670-AM — wondered aloud why the Bears hadn’t used one of their three remaining timeouts just to get reset, to find the right call, to sort through everyone’s individual responsibilities in a much less chaotic setting.
Jaylon Johnson on how the Bears felt ahead of the Hail Mary: "It was a rushed situation when it didn't have to be. I feel like we definitely could've slowed down. I feel like we could've possibly taken a timeout to get everybody situated."
Listen: https://t.co/4Idq7y4dfu pic.twitter.com/QQEfRWVeXQ
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) October 28, 2024
For those keeping count, that was three captains Monday vocalizing concerns with the coaching.
Suddenly you’re right back there again, aren’t you? Wondering if there’s truly enough coaching competence and attention to detail inside Halas Hall for these Bears to climb to heights the organization hasn’t reached in decades.
With quarterbacks, some evaluators call it the confetti test, a challenge to gauge whether one can easily imagine a signal caller standing beneath a downpour of colored paper scraps with the Lombardi Trophy in hand. That test can also apply to coaches. And for the remainder of 2024, perhaps it’s a test that should be readministered weekly in Chicago.
Now seven games into his third season — with a 3-17 road record and a .341 overall winning percentage — Eberflus is again facing a barrage of criticism from those concerned about his accumulation of jaw-dropping losses, which seem to quadruple the signature victories.
Go ahead and stack this latest heartbreaker on top of three equally gutting defeats last season to the Browns, Detroit Lions and Denver Broncos.
With each one, the confidence in Eberflus erodes — often from the outside, sometimes from within.
With 10 games remaining, there’s plenty of time for the Bears to bury Sunday’s misery and to show, with their collective response and performance in all their forthcoming big moments, that they are properly equipped and prepared for the climb they are trying to make.
Eberflus remains the trail guide, the leader who must foster the environment that creates the habits that trigger the execution that leads to triumph.
But after the way the Washington trip ended, the coach may have to push extra hard to retain an enthusiastic following.
“Our guys believe in each other, trust in each other, have faith in each other,” Eberflus said. “They’re a resilient bunch. They’re going to come back more determined.”
Still, Sunday offered Eberflus and his Bears a big game. On a big stage. With a bigger-than-usual audience checking in to see how much of the Bears’ 2024 progress was for real. Ultimately the day ended for the Bears with a new wave of anger, embarrassment and despondency.
And now you’re back there again, aren’t you Chicago?
