Bear Digest

The Three Big Questions Bears Must Answer in San Francisco

Analysis: The Bears have a long-term issue to answer in who coaches the team in the future but against the 49ers there are three immediate issues to resolve in Thomas Brown's debut.
Gene Chamberlain|
David Montgomery churns through the Bears defense in Thursday's loss at Detroit.
David Montgomery churns through the Bears defense in Thursday's loss at Detroit. | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It isn't a light switch, it's a football team.

As much as the Bears might like to think the purging of Matt Eberflus allows them to play differently and better, it doesn't work this way.

It's daily work on the field and in the meeting rooms at Halas Hall with the purpose this week of beating the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers on their field with a new coaching dynamic under interim head coach Thomas Brown.

As such, there are serious questions they face trying to win a game on the road, which they haven't done since Nov. 27, 2023.

In fact, they have never won a Sunday afternoon road game since Matt Eberflus took over as coach. The last one was under Matt Nagy on Dec. 26, 2021 when Nick Foles led their comeback in a 25-24 win at Seattle.

Here are the biggest three short-term questions facing the Bears as they move immediately into the post-Flus era.

Of course, this doesn't include who the next coach will be since they won't settle that until the offseason.

3. Will the Defense Overcome Losing Eberflus?

Slam Eberflus all you want but he could handle his own defense. At least he could until the six-game losing streak started. Then they were giving up Hail Mary's before the end of a game, 53-yard touchdown runs seconds before the end of the first half and their run defense eroded to the point that it began affecting one of the league's best pass defenses.

They were first in run defense last year and they're now 25th. They were sixth in pass defense after beating Jacksonville and now have declined to 11th. They were as high as fourth in points allowed but have dropped to a tie for ninth.

Now Eric Washington is in charge of the defense, their third defensive coordinator in two seasons. Alan Williams was doing it and resigned amid a human resource department investigation at Halas Hall last year.

"He understands the game, he understands that defense is played by all 11," Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards said of Washington. "You know, on our side of the ball we need everyone to work in tandem for it to work out the right way.

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"He's been awesome, his communication skills. I'm excited to see what happens Sunday."

What he hasn't been is play caller. Washingon's defensive coordinator title let him do everything except call defenses. Now he'll do that for the second time in his NFL career.

He did it at Carolina in 2018 and they were giving up 25.5 points a game when former Panthers coach Ron Rivera took it back over. In the last four games with Rivera calling the plays, they gave up 19 points a game.

"Coach E (Washington) definitely, he's been in this situation before," Washington said. "I'm very confident in how he calls plays."

No one knows for sure how this works out.

2. Thomas Brown's Game Operation

They already know Thomas Brown can call plays, come up with a game plan and make adjustments. He's done well at this to varying degrees in all three games he has been offensive coordinator.

What they don't know is if he can do it as the man on the spot along the sidelines during games.

Brown doesn't really know, either, because he was in the coaches' box calling plays and not on the sidelines making the big decisions.

1. How Far Did the Rot Go?

When a team loses six straight games and most in excruciating manners, there is no quick fix or easy answer to why they're struggling.

As Williams pointed out on Wednesday, they're right there in every game and can't pull it out at the end.

However, this hides the fact there are big problems with the franchise they built.

Players spoke of splits in the locker room after the loss to Detroit.

"I wouldn't say division," Walker said.

It wasn't offense vs. defense, like so often happened in the Bears' past when their offense struggled.

"On the other side (of the locker room) you see guys just be on their phones and stuff like that," he said. "The reason why I have a speaker (by his locker) and we bought a (mini) basketball goal is to bring union to the team," Walker said. "I dunno where it (the hoop) came from, but hopefully we can all be on the same page."

It takes more than a basketball hope and music to unite a team. The Bears reportedly had players yelling at coach Matt Eberflus, especially Jaylon Johnson.

They've had Cole Kmet saying some players were cheating themselves by cutting corners in their preparation/individual work when coaches weren't around or watching.

They've had this whole "inmates running the prison" issue, so to speak, since the end of the 2022 season when they had exit interviews and Eberflus was a bit stunned to find out players felt there wasn't honest communication and dialogue with coaches. At least that was how former Bears defensive tackle Justin Jones put it.

Can Thomas Brown simply come in and in the blink of an eye correct all of these internal issues?

Maybe if he was head coach next year it's possible with a restructuring but in the middle of a season and with five weeks to prove himself a worthy head coaching candidate to ownership?

It needs to happen suddenly and happen in 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.