Yahoo Sports Details from 'ugly' Bears locker room after brutal loss vs. Lions
The Chicago Bears fired head coach Matt Eberflus on Friday following a disastrous loss to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, where more coaching malpractice resulted in the team's sixth straight loss. But what exactly led to Eberflus' firing on Friday?
According to The Athletic's Adam Jahns, one staff member said the scene inside the locker room after Thursday's loss was "ugly" and "there was a lot of yelling." But there was one specific player who was fed up: star cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who has never had a winning season since being drafted by Chicago in 2020.
“Jaylon went crazy,” one Bears player told Jahns. “He was very emotional and pissed but rightfully so. He’s been here longer than most.”
Another player added: “He was going off more so at (Eberflus).”
The defining moment of the Eberflus era occurred at the end of the Lions game, where his failure to call a timeout in a critical situation with Caleb Williams and the offense driving, resulted in a brutal loss on national television. To make matters worse, Eberflus defended his decision in not calling a timeout as 30 seconds ticked off the clock as the game came to an end on a deep incompletion.
It was Eberflus' decision to not call a timeout that had players fuming after the game.
“Guys were furious,” a staff member said told Jahns “It was an accumulation of this season.”
But this was far from the first error Eberflus made that has resulted in a loss -- heck, it's the third during this six-game losing streak alone.
“We felt as players it’s been too many instances where we fought our way back into games to lose because of bad time management and decision-making," one player told Jahns.
According to Jahns, tensions were so high that Eberflus had to leave the locker room after addressing the team.
Multiple sources added that the emotions were so high between the players and their head coach that Eberflus left the locker room immediately after his speech and the exchange with players. There was nothing left to say. It was a moment for this Bears team that would inevitably force chairman George McCaskey into something the franchise had never done before.
The Bears had never fired a head coach midseason before, but Eberflus essentially forced his hand following that brutal postgame locker room scene. There was no way Eberflus was going to be able to coach another game after this latest fiasco where he completely, 100 percent finally lost the locker room.
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Details from 'ugly' Bears locker room after brutal loss vs. Lions
