Bears 8.0: Matt Eberflus FIRED

[fleet]

It was time. Past time actually. Still think it was poor judgement to let him come out and speak to the media this morning and then boot him right after. That was bizarre.

That’s a great indication that this franchise and FO is still **** up. But we didn’t need the greater indicator beyond them keeping Eberflus this past offseason. Today just disabuses you of any notion that they had miraculously gotten better, and learned anything along the way. This was Brisker’s reaction to Eberflus facing the media today. Da Bearrrrss

Read on Twitter

[fleet]

I mean, Kevin Warren is just another stiff. He still oversees dysfunction in his FO on the day they fired a coach because the coach was dysfunctional. They definitely need to clean house. But if Poles isn’t let go later today or tomorrow, then Kevin Warren is the wrong guy to be doing it down the line. The only way that what we saw today makes sense for Warren’s supposed legacy as the competency guy is if Poles is next, later today.

[Chi town]

“ I support Ryan and the decision that was made this morning. We understand how imperative the head-coaching role is for building and maintaining a championship-caliber team, leading our players and our organization. Our fans have stood by us and persevered through every challenge, and they deserve better results. Our organizational and operational structure is strong, focused, aligned and energized for the future.”

Poles going nowhere.

[fleet]

Except for how we handled the firing of our coach this morning, our organizational and operational structure is strong, focused, aligned and energized for the future.”

FIFY

[panthermark]

Our rookie QB wasn’t perfect but 3 TD, 0 INT, 256 yards, set the record for most consecutive passes by a rookie in the NFL without a TD, and set the record for most passing yards by a rookie in a Bears season.

And?
None of that mattered in the final 46 seconds.
Flus gets plenty of blame (and got the axe), but that final 46 seconds was mostly on the players.

Without question, it was a collective failure to end the game. You have detailed how the players did not execute. Many people have detailed how Flus failed.

There isn't a lot of ways for Flus to impact a game. Games are usually won and loss by the players. But Flus was put in a position to impact the game, overcome his players' shortcomings and still keep the team in a position to succeed. You know what he did when that opportunity arose? He did nothing.

I agree that the players lack of execution to end the game was the large reason for the loss. Flus doing nothing has no excuse. I personally cannot look at the players shortcomings and wonder why it's happening when I see who the head coach is.

EDIT: But hey, if we're gonna do a deep dive, I've got to put a spotlight on or new head coach.

Caleb changing Rome's route...Caleb says he did this because he knew this was the final play of the game and it was endzone or bust. When the sack happens and the communication channel opens back up between the OC and the QB, is the OC not communicating to his rookie qb - "we need positive yardage...anywhere on the field...doesn't matter...gain yards and then we call a timeout." Or something to that effect? Was our rookie qb unaware there was 1 time-out remaining?

I'm not saying Flus should not be fired. He should have been fired in the off-season when CW was drafted. He should have been fired for hiring weak-ass OC's to protect his own neck instead of getting the best OC's available. But I think he is catching too much heat on this one. The clock management went from amazing (1st and 10 on the 25 with TWO time-outs and 46 seconds on the clock) to a bizarre loss on 3rd and 26 with a time-out still in his pocket, in a heartbeat. And like you, I want to know what went wrong. I heard that the plan was to snap the ball around 18 seconds and throw an out route....but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how much of this was CW vs TB vs Flus....but a lot of things went wrong at once.

[Kurt Heimlich]

“ I support Ryan and the decision that was made this morning. We understand how imperative the head-coaching role is for building and maintaining a championship-caliber team, leading our players and our organization. Our fans have stood by us and persevered through every challenge, and they deserve better results. Our organizational and operational structure is strong, focused, aligned and energized for the future.”

Poles going nowhere.

They're all hirees from the poisonous tree that are the mccaskeys and beholden to their doctrine and operating mandates, as pathetically futile as they are. We as the fanbase can rotate blame ad nauseum from qb to coach to gm to president but the problem is simple. The nepo oligarch mccaskeys hold a Monopoly on nfl football in the Chicagoland area and face no real worry of consequence or competetion in this market.

[fleet]

Caveat to my previous statements, apparently the latest fiasco this morning was at least partially on the omnipresent McCaskey problem. Apparently Kevin and Ryan tried to do this the right way. But we will need to know the timeline for this morning’s Bears follies to verify if the stupidity this morning was all on George.

Read on Twitter

[MAQ]

And?
None of that mattered in the final 46 seconds.
Flus gets plenty of blame (and got the axe), but that final 46 seconds was mostly on the players.

Without question, it was a collective failure to end the game. You have detailed how the players did not execute. Many people have detailed how Flus failed.

There isn't a lot of ways for Flus to impact a game. Games are usually won and loss by the players. But Flus was put in a position to impact the game, overcome his players' shortcomings and still keep the team in a position to succeed. You know what he did when that opportunity arose? He did nothing.

I agree that the players lack of execution to end the game was the large reason for the loss. Flus doing nothing has no excuse. I personally cannot look at the players shortcomings and wonder why it's happening when I see who the head coach is.

EDIT: But hey, if we're gonna do a deep dive, I've got to put a spotlight on or new head coach.

Caleb changing Rome's route...Caleb says he did this because he knew this was the final play of the game and it was endzone or bust. When the sack happens and the communication channel opens back up between the OC and the QB, is the OC not communicating to his rookie qb - "we need positive yardage...anywhere on the field...doesn't matter...gain yards and then we call a timeout." Or something to that effect? Was our rookie qb unaware there was 1 time-out remaining?

I'm not saying Flus should not be fired. He should have been fired in the off-season when CW was drafted. He should have been fired for hiring weak-ass OC's to protect his own neck instead of getting the best OC's available. But I think he is catching too much heat on this one. The clock management went from amazing (1st and 10 on the 25 with TWO time-outs and 46 seconds on the clock) to a bizarre loss on 3rd and 26 with a time-out still in his pocket, in a heartbeat. And like you, I want to know what went wrong. I heard that the plan was to snap the ball around 18 seconds and throw an out route....but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how much of this was CW vs TB vs Flus....but a lot of things went wrong at once.

I don't think there's any way too much can be placed at Eberflus in this situation. There may be a lack of spreading the failure, but for multiple reasons, Flus wears this the most.

Just like Poles, who I like and I think has done a fine job, has to wear firing an OC and a head coach in his qb's rookie year...in addition to not getting his qb any concrete help up front. These misses, with how huge they are, are starting to pile up for him now.

[panthermark]

Our rookie QB wasn’t perfect but 3 TD, 0 INT, 256 yards, set the record for most consecutive passes by a rookie in the NFL without a TD, and set the record for most passing yards by a rookie in a Bears season.

And?
None of that mattered in the final 46 seconds.
Flus gets plenty of blame (and got the axe), but that final 46 seconds was mostly on the players.

Who coaches the players? If the players are unprepared, that’s a coaching failure. Caleb is a rookie. That’s like a parent complaining that their toddler isn’t behaving.

I disagree with that. While Caleb is a rookie, this isn't his first time playing QB in a close game. I don't know what happened, but it simply took too long to run the next play after the sack. In hindsight he should have taken a TO (because we know how it ended), but I actually agree with Flu's strategy on this one.

On 2nd and 26, the ball was snapped at the 36 second mark.
CW got sacked at the 33-32 second mark.

On 3rd and 26, you are probably not going to get a 1st down. You want to save that time-out so that a pass can be completed anywhere on the field (most likely in the middle of the field), and you are not to running the FG team out there with the clock winding down (being that you can't spike it on 4th down).

When you go back and look at the clip for that final play, the ball should have been snapped at the 12 second mark, not the 6 second mark. I'm not sure if that delay is on CW or TB or what. But at that point, the team was already committed to saving the TO. That wasted 6 seconds was the difference in clock management IMO.

[fleet]

And?
None of that mattered in the final 46 seconds.
Flus gets plenty of blame (and got the axe), but that final 46 seconds was mostly on the players.

Without question, it was a collective failure to end the game. You have detailed how the players did not execute. Many people have detailed how Flus failed.

There isn't a lot of ways for Flus to impact a game. Games are usually won and loss by the players. But Flus was put in a position to impact the game, overcome his players' shortcomings and still keep the team in a position to succeed. You know what he did when that opportunity arose? He did nothing.

I agree that the players lack of execution to end the game was the large reason for the loss. Flus doing nothing has no excuse. I personally cannot look at the players shortcomings and wonder why it's happening when I see who the head coach is.

EDIT: But hey, if we're gonna do a deep dive, I've got to put a spotlight on or new head coach.

Caleb changing Rome's route...Caleb says he did this because he knew this was the final play of the game and it was endzone or bust. When the sack happens and the communication channel opens back up between the OC and the QB, is the OC not communicating to his rookie qb - "we need positive yardage...anywhere on the field...doesn't matter...gain yards and then we call a timeout." Or something to that effect? Was our rookie qb unaware there was 1 time-out remaining?

I'm not saying Flus should not be fired. He should have been fired in the off-season when CW was drafted. He should have been fired for hiring weak-ass OC's to protect his own neck instead of getting the best OC's available. But I think he is catching too much heat on this one. The clock management went from amazing (1st and 10 on the 25 with TWO time-outs and 46 seconds on the clock) to a bizarre loss on 3rd and 26 with a time-out still in his pocket, in a heartbeat. And like you, I want to know what went wrong. I heard that the plan was to snap the ball around 18 seconds and throw an out route....but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how much of this was CW vs TB vs Flus....but a lot of things went wrong at once.

Things don’t always go according to plan. Even if there is a plan, which we don’t know either. Murphy’s law exists. That’s what timeouts are for. That’s why this is on the coach 100%.

[Betta Bulleavit]

And?
None of that mattered in the final 46 seconds.
Flus gets plenty of blame (and got the axe), but that final 46 seconds was mostly on the players.

Without question, it was a collective failure to end the game. You have detailed how the players did not execute. Many people have detailed how Flus failed.

There isn't a lot of ways for Flus to impact a game. Games are usually won and loss by the players. But Flus was put in a position to impact the game, overcome his players' shortcomings and still keep the team in a position to succeed. You know what he did when that opportunity arose? He did nothing.

I agree that the players lack of execution to end the game was the large reason for the loss. Flus doing nothing has no excuse. I personally cannot look at the players shortcomings and wonder why it's happening when I see who the head coach is.

EDIT: But hey, if we're gonna do a deep dive, I've got to put a spotlight on or new head coach.

Caleb changing Rome's route...Caleb says he did this because he knew this was the final play of the game and it was endzone or bust. When the sack happens and the communication channel opens back up between the OC and the QB, is the OC not communicating to his rookie qb - "we need positive yardage...anywhere on the field...doesn't matter...gain yards and then we call a timeout." Or something to that effect? Was our rookie qb unaware there was 1 time-out remaining?

I'm not saying Flus should not be fired. He should have been fired in the off-season when CW was drafted. He should have been fired for hiring weak-ass OC's to protect his own neck instead of getting the best OC's available. But I think he is catching too much heat on this one. The clock management went from amazing (1st and 10 on the 25 with TWO time-outs and 46 seconds on the clock) to a bizarre loss on 3rd and 26 with a time-out still in his pocket, in a heartbeat. And like you, I want to know what went wrong. I heard that the plan was to snap the ball around 18 seconds and throw an out route....but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how much of this was CW vs TB vs Flus....but a lot of things went wrong at once.

I think you are right in general. However, there are so many other instances of incompetence on the part of Flus that this was simply the icing on the cake. If nothing else, the buck stops with him as far as not taking the timeout. He’s had 2 OCs fired and has a record that would have gotten most HCs fired a while ago. So, even though that sequence wasn’t all on him, he is the common denominator to things going bad. Furthermore, I’ve heard several reports that indicate that the locker room morale has been a mess for some time now.

[Chi town]

I think we are going to see a whole new animal as a Bears football team. TB seems to inspire and demand the best from the team. High accountability guy.

Will certainly be fun to watch. Also want to see his interaction with CW on the sidelines each game.

[Mbrahv0528]

The defending of Eberfloser in here is absolutely bizarre. We had HOF coaches (Belichick for one) and players being highly critical (egregious and unnaceptable were just two of the descriptive words thrown around loosely) of our head coach. He was objectively in over his head and one of the worst head coaches of all time.

Edit- typo

Sent from my SM-S928U using RealGM mobile app

[panthermark]

Without question, it was a collective failure to end the game. You have detailed how the players did not execute. Many people have detailed how Flus failed.

There isn't a lot of ways for Flus to impact a game. Games are usually won and loss by the players. But Flus was put in a position to impact the game, overcome his players' shortcomings and still keep the team in a position to succeed. You know what he did when that opportunity arose? He did nothing.

I agree that the players lack of execution to end the game was the large reason for the loss. Flus doing nothing has no excuse. I personally cannot look at the players shortcomings and wonder why it's happening when I see who the head coach is.

EDIT: But hey, if we're gonna do a deep dive, I've got to put a spotlight on or new head coach.

Caleb changing Rome's route...Caleb says he did this because he knew this was the final play of the game and it was endzone or bust. When the sack happens and the communication channel opens back up between the OC and the QB, is the OC not communicating to his rookie qb - "we need positive yardage...anywhere on the field...doesn't matter...gain yards and then we call a timeout." Or something to that effect? Was our rookie qb unaware there was 1 time-out remaining?

I'm not saying Flus should not be fired. He should have been fired in the off-season when CW was drafted. He should have been fired for hiring weak-ass OC's to protect his own neck instead of getting the best OC's available. But I think he is catching too much heat on this one. The clock management went from amazing (1st and 10 on the 25 with TWO time-outs and 46 seconds on the clock) to a bizarre loss on 3rd and 26 with a time-out still in his pocket, in a heartbeat. And like you, I want to know what went wrong. I heard that the plan was to snap the ball around 18 seconds and throw an out route....but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how much of this was CW vs TB vs Flus....but a lot of things went wrong at once.

Things don’t always go according to plan. Even if there is a plan, which we don’t know either. Murphy’s law exists. That’s what timeouts are for. That’s why this is on the coach 100%.

The timeout was there to get the FG unit on the field and to allow a pass to be thrown anywhere on the field.

When I look at this clip, one of two thing needed to happen.
Either a Time-out at 32-31 seconds right after the sack. (Flus)
OR
That ball needed to be snapped at 11 seconds. (CW or maybe TB)

Watch on YouTube

Neither happened.

It is why I don't put 100% of the blame on Flus for this particular sequence. He still needed to go, but I think his strategy was sound. For whatever reason, that ball wasn't snapped until 6 seconds, and thrown towards the endzone at 4 seconds, which ended the game.

[SalmonsSuperfan]

And?
None of that mattered in the final 46 seconds.
Flus gets plenty of blame (and got the axe), but that final 46 seconds was mostly on the players.

Without question, it was a collective failure to end the game. You have detailed how the players did not execute. Many people have detailed how Flus failed.

There isn't a lot of ways for Flus to impact a game. Games are usually won and loss by the players. But Flus was put in a position to impact the game, overcome his players' shortcomings and still keep the team in a position to succeed. You know what he did when that opportunity arose? He did nothing.

I agree that the players lack of execution to end the game was the large reason for the loss. Flus doing nothing has no excuse. I personally cannot look at the players shortcomings and wonder why it's happening when I see who the head coach is.

EDIT: But hey, if we're gonna do a deep dive, I've got to put a spotlight on or new head coach.

Caleb changing Rome's route...Caleb says he did this because he knew this was the final play of the game and it was endzone or bust. When the sack happens and the communication channel opens back up between the OC and the QB, is the OC not communicating to his rookie qb - "we need positive yardage...anywhere on the field...doesn't matter...gain yards and then we call a timeout." Or something to that effect? Was our rookie qb unaware there was 1 time-out remaining?

I'm not saying Flus should not be fired. He should have been fired in the off-season when CW was drafted. He should have been fired for hiring weak-ass OC's to protect his own neck instead of getting the best OC's available. But I think he is catching too much heat on this one. The clock management went from amazing (1st and 10 on the 25 with TWO time-outs and 46 seconds on the clock) to a bizarre loss on 3rd and 26 with a time-out still in his pocket, in a heartbeat. And like you, I want to know what went wrong. I heard that the plan was to snap the ball around 18 seconds and throw an out route....but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how much of this was CW vs TB vs Flus....but a lot of things went wrong at once.

It isn't just this one event, right? that drive was incredibly messy anyway, the Lions really tried to give the Bears that win, but this has been happening the entire season. if you screw up once on the last possession of the game, fair enough. that's probably a big deal in a 16 game season compared to a 82 or 162 game one, but **** happens. if you screw up in ridiculous fashion 5 out of 12 times, culminating in whatever the heck happened yesterday in a game the entire country is watching...then play it off like "yes, that was the desired outcome", you probably deserve to be fired. I bet he keeps his job the rest of the season if he takes even a little accountability, the firing reflects poorly on everybody involved, but has there even been this incompetent of a head coach? Flus reminds me of that one NBA coach, that guy with no J, who asked his player to spill water on him in order to get a free timeout. oh wait, I guess that guy's coaching again.

I mean, if you think he should've been fired last offseason, that's fair enough, but why double down on a terrible decision solely to save face? well, I understand why the president/GM might do that, they might like remaining employed and not making history for the wrong reasons, but I wonder why a fan would have that perspective. I will say that the QB should be held more accountable for that braindead play, bad coaching has been a bigger storyline than 'wunderkind' Caleb's poor play/poor attitude, but I tend to think that if a team (in any sport) consistently loses close games all season, it's on the coaching staff. I feel like any coach has a much greater impact on the outcome of a game in end of game situations, certainly that's true in basketball where one good play call at the right time can win a game; and Eberflus has been raked over the coals the past two months for this. People have been calling for his job for quite a while, then he managed to screw up in the most amazing way yet on Thanksgiving day with everybody watching! If they put me on a performance improvement plan, I'm probably going to be on my best behavior when everybody's watching. I guess Flus didn't think the same.

[fleet]

The defending of Eberfloser in here is absolutely bizarre. We had HOF coaches (Belichick for one) and players being highly critical (egregious and unnaceptable were bust two of the descriptive words thrown around loosely) of our head coach. He was objectively in over his head and one of the worst head coaches of all time.

Objectively, Eberflus should have never made it to training camp this year. That’s the problem. If not, not being objective, but being incompetent as the shot caller. Hey, we have literally tossed away the chance to be in playoffs because someone made the wrong judgment on who the head coach was this year. Or last year for that matter. I want to believe that person is George McCaskey, but we don’t have that information. However in the end, Ryan Poles has had lots of dirt kicked onto his Jordans behind the situation of who put Eberflus on the sidelines this season. Poles is going to carry it, and he’s got to carry it.

[panthermark]

The defending of Eberfloser in here is absolutely bizarre. We had HOF coaches (Belichick for one) and players being highly critical (egregious and unnaceptable were bust two of the descriptive words thrown around loosely) of our head coach. He was objectively in over his head and one of the worst head coaches of all time.

Sent from my SM-S928U using RealGM mobile app

Stop right there.
Who is defending Flus here? Are you referring to me?

I think people are trying to assign a position to have something to argue against.
Flus had done plenty to get himself fired, so I have no issue what-so-ever with him being gone. He should have never been here.

But on this last series in particular, trying to put it 100% on Flus is BS. It is trying to pretend the players were not at the line getting set for 10 full seconds before the ball was snapped.

Snap the ball 5 seconds earlier, pick up a few yards and call a time-out (or get out of bounds) with a 2-3 seconds left on the clock and it would be called excellent clock management.

[fleet]

I'm not saying Flus should not be fired. He should have been fired in the off-season when CW was drafted. He should have been fired for hiring weak-ass OC's to protect his own neck instead of getting the best OC's available. But I think he is catching too much heat on this one. The clock management went from amazing (1st and 10 on the 25 with TWO time-outs and 46 seconds on the clock) to a bizarre loss on 3rd and 26 with a time-out still in his pocket, in a heartbeat. And like you, I want to know what went wrong. I heard that the plan was to snap the ball around 18 seconds and throw an out route....but that clearly didn't happen. I don't know how much of this was CW vs TB vs Flus....but a lot of things went wrong at once.

Things don’t always go according to plan. Even if there is a plan, which we don’t know either. Murphy’s law exists. That’s what timeouts are for. That’s why this is on the coach 100%.

The timeout was there to get the FG unit on the field and to allow a pass to be thrown anywhere on the field.

When I look at this clip, one of two thing needed to happen.
Either a Time-out at 32-31 seconds right after the sack. (Flus)
OR
That ball needed to be snapped at 11 seconds. (CW or maybe TB)

Watch on YouTube

Neither happened.

It is why I don't put 100% of the blame on Flus for this particular sequence. He still needed to go, but I think his strategy was sound. For whatever reason, that ball wasn't snapped until 6 seconds, and thrown towards the endzone at 4 seconds, which ended the game.

I was sitting on my couch next to my uncle, and we both could tell something wasn’t right with 15 seconds to go. Time. Out. You can’t just say we had a plan and nobody followed it. You can’t see it’s not going right? You got to call time out. But, you don’t. You fired. Bill Cower said that Eberflus froze. That’s exactly right.

[Jeffster81]

I mean, Kevin Warren is just another stiff. He still oversees dysfunction in his FO on the day they fired a coach because the coach was dysfunctional. They definitely need to clean house. But if Poles isn’t let go later today or tomorrow, then Kevin Warren is the wrong guy to be doing it down the line. The only way that what we saw today makes sense for Warren’s supposed legacy as the competency guy is if Poles is next, later today.

No chance Poles was getting fired. Nor should he had been. With that said, the clock starts now for Poles. 2025 has to be playoffs or Poles is gone, imo. I know some will say just fire him now but given he pretty much had Flus forced on him (and I don't necessarily buy that Poles was the other guy in the Bears org that wanted to keep him after 2023), I'm willing to let him have a bonafid chance to hire the HC he wants and not one recommended by an outside firm.

[fleet]

^^^Poles chose Flus out of the 3 choices. (Silvy says btw that at least 2 people on that search committee wanted Quinn). And Poles doubled down this offseason by retaining Eberflus, while we all knew Flus didn’t have the bones for the job. To try and shield Poles from his body of work, not for me. People are accountable. That’s healthy.