Bear Digest

What Matt Eberflus Said to Second-Guessers After Hail Mary Loss

The second-guessing of Matt Eberflus started Sunday night after the blown Hail Mary pass by his defense and carried over to Monday and here's his answers to all of it.

Gene Chamberlain

Matt Eberflus and everyone with the team came under fire after Sunday's loss on a Hail Mary pass to the Commanders.
Matt Eberflus and everyone with the team came under fire after Sunday's loss on a Hail Mary pass to the Commanders. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Matt Eberflus on Monday stuck to his story about the end of Sunday's 18-15 loss to the Washington Commanders, whether anyone likes it or not.

The Bears coach was as convinced the sequence of events leading to Jayden Daniels' 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass was a correct one for his team to take, and he also didn't back down from one big decision offensive coordinator Shane Waldron made.

On why the Bears decided not to guard the sidelines with six seconds left and allow a 13-yard completion in four seconds out of bounds to Terry McLaurin to set up the final play. They simply could have guarded the sidelines and forced a Hail Mary from the 35 instead of the 48.

"So in that particular situation, you always know that they're going to do with six seconds to go at the 35," Eberflus said. "They're going to either go for the end zone there (a 65-yard Hail Mary) or just try to get more yards and do that. So if you want to play sideline defense, what they're doing to do is convert to the Hail Mary right there and then just run everybody off of the sideline. Then you have to pick them up from the sideline and do the same job that you're going to do in the Hail Mary. So to me, we wanted to just bring them up so that they wouldn't get something that was too far down the field. Which was to the 48. And then we set up for the Hail Mary at the end."

Eberflus thought making Jayden Daniels throw a 52-yard Hail Mary wasn't significantly more difficult than a 65-yard Hail Mary.

"It's going to land somewhere in that area (the 3-yard line)," Eberflus said. "How far he can throw it. Ya know? So 60, 65 yards, Somewhere in there."

On why they didn't blitz and thought three men rushing with T.J. Edwards spying on the running back and QB was the way to go.

"It's really about just working the pass rush there and working the games that you have in there and keeping him in the well there," Eberflus said. "And then really just keep pursuing. You have to keep pursuing there and really just get him on the ground.

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"You can't foul there at the very end either. You can't have a defensive foul. You have to make sure that you do that. But the most important thing is to just stay after him. But in terms of the extra rusher, you could certainly do that. But at that position of the field, we thought that was the right thing to do."

It still seemed like wasting a defender who could have been used elsewhere to affect the play.

"I don't think it is," Eberflus said. "He has the back in that situation right there. So that's what ... he was doing his job."

Why Montez Sweat wasn't on the field rushing Daniels.

"Yeah. Montez was out at that time with his shin (injury)," Eberflus said. "So he was out. Obviously we would have loved to have had him in there. Because he's one of the guys who can get him and chase him down for sure. So yeah. He was out at that time."

Why Shane Waldron's play call handing it to backup center Doug Kramer in the fourth quarter with the game on the line from just outside the 1-yard line wasn't a bad play call.

"We felt good about that play, we practiced that play," Eberflus said. Like I said, it was the first play from the 1. We had other plays to go to after that. Again, we just have to be better with the execution of the handoff there.

Is that play still a possibility in the future?

"I would say this, mny answer was that when things don't work, obviously you work to something else and you go to a different piece that executes at a higher rate," Ebeflus said. "But that right there? Again, we practiced it. It was good during practice. We went with it."

Why they would keep that play when Roschon Johnson simply scored from the 1 the next series.

"Like I said, we've practiced it. It looked good in practice," Eberflus said. "And that's what we went with. We just have to execute that handoff better and then push it in there for the touchdown. Again, if it didn't work on that particular one, we were going to go to the next one."

Does Eberflus need to have more offensive game-plan involvement?

"I'm involved in the play-calling and working with those guys between series and giving suggestions during the course of the game," Eberflus said. "Obviously when you have a start like that, that's obviously not the way you want it to go. But I was proud of the way the guys did eventually work into there and find some good answers into the third quarter, into the fourth quarter to put us in a winning position.

"The guys did a nice job of figuring that all out. Again, we have to come to that answer much faster. But again the defense kept us in it with a bunch of field goals. Four field goals, 12 points against one of the best scoring teams in football at this time. So I was proud of those guys for that. And then us responding there and scoring that at the very end to be able to put us in a winning position.”

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher 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.