Bear Digest

Matt Eberflus Proceeds Like He's Coach and Says He Took Right Approach

The Bears coach held normal next-day press availability and has not been fired, but does have a meeting for later Friday with GM Ryan Poles and president Kevin Warren.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears coach Matt Eberflus hollers at the defense during Thursday's 23-20 loss to the Lions.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus hollers at the defense during Thursday's 23-20 loss to the Lions. | David Reginek-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Matt Eberflus remains Bears head coach, for now.

Eberflus held his normal day-after media availability on Friday but said he will have a regularly scheduled meeting later in the day with GM Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren. Eberflus already met with team president Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles after the game, which is their normal "debriefing" process.

Asked if he was confident he'll be coaching the team Dec. 8 against San Francisco, Eberflus said he had  no reason to think otherwise at this point. The Bears have never fired a head coach in-season.

"Like I said, I'm just going to be working on finishing up this game, doing a good job of evaluating that, our after-action report, as we always do, and then I'll be working in to San Francisco.

"Again, 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."

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Normal procedure calls for the debriefing after the game for the GM and president, then grading the tape and meeting with his coordinators, Eric Washington, Richard Hightower and Thomas Brown.

Eberflus said he spoke with Williams and Brown about the game-ending process. After the game, he defended how it all went down in terms of their use of the clock. The problem was not getting the play off before using the timeout

"I also know that the other option that you could've had was that at 30 to 28 seconds, you call a timeout there, and then you have no timeouts," Eberflus said. "You throw the ball the same type of play, you throw it in there, and then you do your fast field goal and kick the game-tier there. So those are the two options that we had.

"We want the first option, to hold a timeout, re-rack—it wasn't re-racking the play.  The first play (called) was a (QB) draw play, and then the next play (audible) was a different play. It could've went to Cole (Kmet), to Rome (Odunze) on that one, and then we would've called a timeout right there."

The problem with using the timeout right after the sack was then gettnig the field goal team quickly on the field and set to kick after another play. It would have been difficult to do without getting the ball out of bounds, and they wouldn't have been able to ground the ball since the kick would have been coming on fourth down.

While Eberflus still felt they took the right option, he expressed frustration with the conclusion.

"I watched the whole last drive with Thomas this morning," Eberflus said. "I talked to him about all the details about the calls in terms of where we were, and I thought the operation was good, just the penalties, I thought, put us behind the sticks a couple times there.

"We were in scoring position and really could’ve owned the game from there. But again, ultimately all these decisions are my decision. I take full accountability for them, and we didn’t get it done and it’s unfortunate for the players, for the fans."

The other option Eberflus didn't mention was simply calling the timeout and kicking the 58- or 59-yard field goal. Santos has never made one longer than 55 yards but he was kicking indoors. He also had a kick blocked in each of the two previous games from much shorter than 58 or 59 yards and the ball would need to come off at a lower angle from a longer distance.

Eberflus continues to maintain the problem wasn't the plan but their execution of it, just like he said after the game.

"Operation is on everybody. 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," he said. "Again, that’s ultimately on me.

"Well you look at it and hindsight’s 20/20, right? We’re all sitting here on Friday after the game and the first option didn’t work. So obviously you look at the second option and thinking that that would be an option that you should choose. But again, we chose the first option, that’s where it was. We hoped we could get the ball snapped off in time and that we’d utilize that timeout and put ourselves in position to kick it."

After the game, players' thoughts ranged from confusion to anger over the way it ended. Then, on Friday, as Eberflus was beginning his press conference injured safety Jaquan Brisker tweeted out a laughing emoji.

"Yeah, I’ve talked to a few players and I’ll reach out to a couple more guys as we go through this day today," Eberflus said.

That is, if he remains coach. The weekend is a long one for the Bears before they start practicing Monday for San Francisco.

Twitter: BearsOnSI


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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.