6 takeaways from the Matt Eberflus coaching era

It's a new week for the Chicago Bears and it's their first without Matt Eberflus in the building. The Bears fired their head coach last Friday following another embarrassing loss, this one coming in front of a national audience on Thanksgiving when they fell to the Detroit Lions 23-20. Eberflus' failed use of a timeout on the final drive cost the offense a chance to tie or win, which finally broke the locker room after the game. The following day, Eberflus was fired and Thomas Brown was named interim head coach.

The firing, which was the first time a head coach was removed during the season, was the end of nearly three seasons of turmoil. Eberflus spent just seven total weeks above .500 during that time and slowly, but surely, alienated his players following heartbreaking losses that kept piling up. General manager Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren had seen enough and decided they couldn't go on like this without a coaching change.

Before we turn the page towards Brown and the final stretch of the season let's put a bow on the Eberflus era with our key takeaways from his time as Bears head coach:

1. He was the wrong coach for 2 young quarterbacks

Nearly three years ago, when the Bears were in a very similar position to the one they're currently in when it comes to looking for a new head coach, the worry was that they would hire someone who was unable to get the most out of then-quarterback Justin Fields. Those fears were realized when Eberflus became the head coach, hired Luke Getsy to run an offense that was counterintuitive to Fields' strengths, and failed to develop him into a prolific NFL quarterback. Getsy and the staff changed Fields' mechanics, coached some of the aggressiveness out of him, and struggled to get on the same page for two years before the Bears moved on from both of them. You would think after a mistake this glaring with the opportunity to select the top quarterback in the draft, it wouldn't happen again, right? Wrong.

With the team having zeroed in on Caleb Williams from the start, they jettisoned Getsy and cast a wide net for their next offensive coordinator. They needed someone who could help Williams along as a rookie and believed that individual should be Shane Waldron. He was the complete opposite, giving Williams way too much freedom and not demanding the details be correct during practice. That led to uncertainty during the games and got Williams hammered in the pocket far too often. Fortunately, the quarterback has been resilient, and the Bears made the move to fire Waldron midseason, but that was two times in a row Eberflus brought on someone to usher in a young quarterback that completely backfired. He should have never had a chance to do it again, and it was arguably his biggest wart.

2. He stopped practicing what he preached

When Eberflus first took the podium during a slightly awkward introductory press conference, his message was made clear: His players were going to practice hard and focus in on the details to be a fundamentally smart group. And he stuck to that early on. In 2022, the Bears had the sixth-fewest penalties in the league with 103, and they played hard football, despite having limited talent on the roster. It was a solid foundation that showed promise going into the next season. In 2023, cracks began to show as the Bears jumped to No. 17 in total penalties with 118, along with not finishing out games with multiple blown leads.

Things only got worse in 2024. Through 12 games, the Bears have 94 penalties, 13th highest in the league, and many have come at inopportune times. Couple that with players indicating that practices were getting sloppy, and Eberflus' best traits were slowly but surely fading away. Whether he stopped enforcing tough practices and smart plays (his HITS principle) or the team simply tuned him out, the message wasn't being received anymore. When you can't even hang your hat on what got you hired in the first place, that's when you know it's time for a change.

3. His best coaching performance came during his first game

Did we see Eberflus' best coaching performance in his first game? It's quite possible, and to me, it seems like the high point for him. The season opener of the 2022 season was wet and rainy at Soldier Field, with buckets of water pouring down on everyone in the stadium as the Bears took on the San Francisco 49ers. It was ugly in the beginning as the 49ers had a 10-0 lead going into the second half, but the Bears and Eberflus made the proper adjustments and willed their way to victory against the team that narrowly missed going to the Super Bowl the year prior.

Eberflus had his HITS principle on full display that day as the players showed mental and physical toughness to get the win. Even Jaylon Johnson, one of Eberflus' biggest critics in recent weeks, credited the mentality at the time. "I feel like [the HITS principle won us the game," he said to Larry Mayer following the win.

This is what Bears fans believed was coming—a strong, disciplined team led by a man who calls Lovie Smith a mentor. We all saw it right away, and almost never again. This win is because of Eberflus, who even got the game ball in the locker room. There might be only a couple more victories that can be attributed to coaching.

4. His close losses became a staple

Every football game can come down to just a few plays that can determine a win or loss. Being able to weather the storm and win games that come down to one score is a trait the better coaches in the league have. So it should come as no surprise to hear that Eberflus was dreadful in his one-score games, which became his calling card prior to his firing.

Eberflus finished his Bears tenure with a dismal 5-19 record in one-score games, by far the worst among active coaches via Stathole. That's barely a .200 winning percentage. The next closest coach, Zac Taylor, has a winning percentage of .390%.

It gets worse, though. Among 221 coaches who have coached at least 20 games, Eberflus' one-score winning percentage ranks dead last. It's an all-time record, and those games are where coaching matters the most. Like I said earlier, you can only point to a couple of wins at most that were because of the head coach. Plenty of those 19 losses can be attributed to him, however. They were his staple.

5. The only changes he made were cosmetic

The most positive fans have ever been about Eberflus was when he showed up to a winter press conference with a brand new look. His hair was styled, his clothes fit better, and he had a glorious beard that had fans completely distracted with what he was saying. It was fun—until you realize the only thing he worked on this offseason was his look.

Eberflus' improvements from last year were all cosmetic. His in-game adjustments were still poor, his defense lacked imagination when it comes to disguises and coverages, and his excuses in the media were still there. But it's all okay because he looks good, right? Eberflus took a page from the Ben McAdoo playbook when he changed his look and torpedoed the New York Giants eight years ago.

The beard and the look did a good job of distracting everyone, but he couldn't hide behind the makeover forever. The phrase "look good, coach good" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

6. The Commanders game was the point of no return

We don't need to rehash everything that happened following the Hail Maru touchdown, but we can all pinpoint that moment as the moment that broke this team. Eberflus brushed off the Commanders gaining more yards to set up the attempt, blamed the loss on execution, and wouldn't take any accountability for his decisions. In that moment, it was a bad blunder, but the Bears had another game just one week later. They could bounce back and prove that play was behind them. It wasn't, though.

Things devolved fairly quickly. The Bears rolled over for the Cardinals, had no plan whatsoever against the Patriots, got their game-winning field goal blocked by the Packers, lost in overtime to the Vikings, and never got the snap off against the Lions. It has snowballed since that one infamous evening, and players knew it. "That week is when he lost the defensive guys," a player told The Athletic following the Eberflus firing.

The issue with it all is that many people saw the potential that play had of breaking the team. It's not something you come out of easily, even during the regular season when games are happening every week. A strong head coach would have been able to get his players to refocus. The Bears didn't have that, and Eberflus hid behind his canned answers, only recently half-heartedly taking responsibility for the team's shortcomings. The Eberflus era was never going to last too long, but we can all point to Week 8 as the true beginning of the end. Who knows where we would be if Eberflus had even just apologized correctly? Looks like we'll never know.

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: 6 takeaways from the Matt Eberflus coaching era