Details, Details: Bears Look at Loss in Microscope

The scoreboard in Kansas City read 41-10 yet Bears coach Matt Eberflus sees the team as close.

How close?

"I think we're real close," he said Monday at Halas Hall following the team's 13th straight loss. "I really do. I know a lot of people say it's far way away. I don't believe that. I think we're close.

"I think it's more about the details of the individual person. If we just keep doing that right, right things are going to happen."

Eberflus bases this on his own past.

"Because I've seen it before," he said. "Like I said, back when I was with the Colts, when I was the DC at Missouri, the first two years we weren't very good and that was hard. It was hard business. At the Colts, we were losing to teams we probably shouldn’t have lost to to begin. Same thing when I was back at Missouri. All of a sudden, if you just keep doing right, OK, and keep your head down and focus on what matters. Good things happen."

Some might suggest you crash into something if you're looking with your head down at minute details, but Eberflus doesn't see 41-10. He sees the next game, next play and especially the next detail.

"It's always been emphasized, we just have to keep doing it better," Eberflus said.

The Bears coach wants them looking at trees, not the forest.

"There's countless examples of that in the history of the NFL," Eberflus said. "Our 2018 Colts team was that way, right? We were 1-5, right? And everybody was looking at us like, 'Not a very good team,' Right? You just keep doing right over and over again one play at a time, then you run off nine in a row or whatever that might be.

"This team is different, but we'll see where it is. But it's about being a group that's determined, that’s focused, that has the stamina to push through adversity, but you've gotta do it together. You've gotta play better complementary football together: offense, defense, kicking. But again it still comes down to the individual man, focusing on his details at his position to make sure he's got those right, and then the position group, then the unit, then the team."

It's why Eberflus' message to the team Monday included a few things individually each player can improve at. Rookie running back Roschon Johnson knows of what Eberflus speaks from when he was at Texas.

"I mean it's a lot of different and dark roads you can go down mentally when you're on a losing streak, but the main thing was to hone in on details and make sure we stay as close together as possible to give ourselves the best chance to go out and get a win," Johnson said. "From my time at Texas, it comes down to the same thing. The details that we're focusing on throughout the week in order to execute the best we can within the games."

Among those Fields sees as extremely close to breaking through is Justin Fields, despite a 99-yard passing day on Sunday and three poor passing games to start the year.

"He's been doing it in terms of the work and now we're going to see the fruits of the labor," Eberflus said. "He's just got to keep doing the things–the platform, the rhythm and timing, the things we've been discussing.

"I thought we did a good job of moving him out of the pocket yesterday. Had a couple quarterback designed runs, couple run-pass options, took those shots down the field. I thought those were really good. We've got to capitalize on those. He did some things in Sunday's game, OK, that looked how we wanted it to look. It's getting better."

The defense sees success just as close even after giving up 31, 20 and 41 points, and a few details make the difference.

"Everything is so technical in this league and if you're off by a hair, you can miss a play, you can miss a gap, they can break a run off," linebacker T.J. Edwards said. "Those things. For us, it's just being on our details, exact to what we're supposed to be doing.

"To me, that comes through walk-throughs and in meetings and you execute it in practice drills. Which we've done. Which you've seen us do."

What no one has seen them do is win.

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