Bears 8.0: Matt Eberflus FIRED

[NZB2323]

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.

Then the coach with a microphone that goes into Caleb’s helmet should have communicated that to him.

[Dresden]

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.

I think you’re missing the part that Poles chose between the 3 guys THAT WERE PROVIDED to him. I happen to find that part very important because it makes the idea that Flus was “Poles’ guy” only half true. The fact that Flus was retained was at least somewhat plausible at the time because the defense was playing well and it was largely believed they Getsy and Fields were the big problems.

Like I said, I want to believe George McCaskey wouldn’t let Poles hire a new coach. Otherwise I gotta believe Poles has bad judgment.

Having your decision not work out doesn't mean you have bad judgment. I think people who are his bosses have been around long enough to know that everyone makes mistakes, it happens because some things are impossible to predict in sports. Now if it happens over and over (like it has for Flus this year), then you can say there's something wrong. So yes, this won't look good on Poles, but I think he's done enough right (including deciding to wait one more year before starting over with a new qb), that his job should not be in jeopardy, or that he can be said to "have bad judgement".

[fleet]

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.

No, it was too late. The TO had to be called right at the sack, or when the FG unit was going on the field.

If they call a TO with 15 seconds left, what was the next play?
Remember, it is 3rd and 26, so spiking the ball after a completion is not an option (unless you happen to pick up the first down, AND can get everyone lined up to spike the ball).

Any completion not out of bounds or in the endzone ends the game. An incompletion means either a really long FG for Santos, or a Hail Mary on 4th down.

You are left with either an endzone attempt, or an out, which are the two routes Detroit is sitting on.

Whatever went wrong at 15 seconds was the bad clock management part.

Picking up 6 or 7 yards across the middle and calling a TO with a few ticks on the clock was the right move IMO, but the execution (for whatever reason) was beyond awful. Too much time wasted.

Situational football. We always hear Eberflus talking about it. Why didn’t he know what he should’ve done in this situation if the **** hit the fan? 36 some seconds left. Getting into game tying field goal position. Second and third down. 1 timeout. The team is disorganized, frantic and I have a rookie quarterback. Entirely predictable situation. How about a timeout before it’s too late?

We can quibble about what the plans were, and whatever went wrong. The coach didn’t call timeout. And in doing so he didn’t give the team a chance to either avoid mistakes confusion from hurting the outcome (a FG attempt), or recover from mistakes or confusion. There’s a difference between trying to divide blame for whatever dysfunction happened in those last 30 seconds, and assigning full blame for mitigating the harm which directly led to the loss. The coach failed to coach. He is 100% responsible for the ultimate outcome. I don’t see anyone worrying about what went wrong in those 30 seconds. They are worrying about Eberflus not coaching his way through it.

[Dresden]

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.

I think you’re missing the part that Poles chose between the 3 guys THAT WERE PROVIDED to him. I happen to find that part very important because it makes the idea that Flus was “Poles’ guy” only half true. The fact that Flus was retained was at least somewhat plausible at the time because the defense was playing well and it was largely believed they Getsy and Fields were the big problems.

People are forgetting that last part. No one thought Eberflus was absolutely an issue last year. Some, wanted an upgrade but I didn't remember anyone blinking much of an eye last off-season because Getsy was gone and so was Fields.

Poles gets to do his search without anyone being pushed on him.

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

That's how I remember it too. I don't recall hardly anyone being adamant at the end of last year that retaining Eberflus was going to lead to disaster.

[Dresden]

I said this yesterday, but it bears repeating- what we saw unfold on Thursday is exactly why Eberflus decided not to try to run another play in the Packers game, but instead ran the clock down from 30 secs and then tried the 46 yard FG. He could have called a timeout right after that big PI penalty, when we had the ball on the 25, and maybe thought about what to do during the TO- what kinds of plays to run, what their strategy was, etc. Instead it all felt kind of rushed, and we ended up missing badly on a pass (did Caleb ever say anything about why he missed that throw so badly?), then got a penalty (I think it was on Teven for hands to the face, not on Borom), then got a sack where it looked like the blocking scheme was all messed up.

That whole sequence was bad. Maybe it would have been better to just take the TO, get re-set, and go from there.

[Dresden]

As for not firing Eberflus yesterday- on Thanksgiving- didn't the Bulls get a bunch of bad PR for firing Skiles on Christmas or the day after?

[Dresden]

FWIW- listening to sports radio out here in SF today, some guys were speculating that if Belichich wanted to coach again, he couldn't find a better situation than the Bears. I wouldn't want Bill as our coach, but it does indicate that nationally the Bears are perceived as being in pretty good shape, talent wise. And that again goes to the credit of our GM.

[NZB2323]

As for not firing Eberflus yesterday- on Thanksgiving- didn't the Bulls get a bunch of bad PR for firing Skiles on Christmas or the day after?

I think Skiles resigned on Christmas Eve.

[fleet]

Read on Twitter

I’m not surprised to find out it was this way, because apparently the deal wasn’t done until after Eberflus spoke to the team and media. Only after that was Eberflus informed, and then he spoke to the coaching staff. How to interpret this? The Bears were still debating this decision this morning, or weren’t ready to be telling anyone about it. As usual, a **** show of incompetence or indecision instead of knowing what they were doing last night, and acting immediately in orderly fashion. Again, whatever has led to years of recent dysfunction is apparently still in place. The players weren’t informed properly, because the FO was in disarray, still.

[Dresden]

Firing a coach is a serious matter, not one to be rushed into. I don't blame them for waiting a day, if it was because they wanted to make sure everyone was in agreement, and it wasn't just a rash decision made in the heat of the moment. People will make a mountain out of a molehill about things like that, but to me all that matters is that they've moved on. Looking forward to seeing how TB coaches the team the rest of the season.

[panthermark]

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.

Then the coach with a microphone that goes into Caleb’s helmet should have communicated that to him.

Maybe he did?

Also, I think that coach with a mic would have been TB, not Flus.

I'm not trying to defend Flus from getting fired. He has done plenty wrong to warrant this, but that last sequence was a mess far beyond bad clock management by Flus. He is just the easiest target to dump on for what he had done in the past.

[panthermark]

I said this yesterday, but it bears repeating- what we saw unfold on Thursday is exactly why Eberflus decided not to try to run another play in the Packers game, but instead ran the clock down from 30 secs and then tried the 46 yard FG. He could have called a timeout right after that big PI penalty, when we had the ball on the 25, and maybe thought about what to do during the TO- what kinds of plays to run, what their strategy was, etc. Instead it all felt kind of rushed, and we ended up missing badly on a pass (did Caleb ever say anything about why he missed that throw so badly?), then got a penalty (I think it was on Teven for hands to the face, not on Borom), then got a sack where it looked like the blocking scheme was all messed up.

That whole sequence was bad. Maybe it would have been better to just take the TO, get re-set, and go from there.

The whole thing was a mess.

But they did call a TO right after the miss to DJ.
They set up a play that was nullified by a penalty by the OL. They managed to go from 1st and 10 at the 25 to 2nd and 20 at the 35 while burning a TO.
Then the brutal 3rd down play happened. I have no clue what happened there.

I don't mind Flus being gone, but the team execution down the stretch was awful. Flus didn't miss a wide open DJ, get a hands to face penalty, and take a sack on a busted blocking scheme in 3 straight plays that included a TO. But maybe it was poor coaching that led to all of that anyway. In end, yes, they should have called a TO after the sack...but I'm guessing the staff didn't think it would take 25 seconds to run a play. Maybe they mis-estimated their own coaching?

[dice]

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.

No, it was too late. The TO had to be called right at the sack, or when the FG unit was going on the field.

If they call a TO with 15 seconds left, what was the next play?
Remember, it is 3rd and 26, so spiking the ball after a completion is not an option (unless you happen to pick up the first down, AND can get everyone lined up to spike the ball).

Any completion not out of bounds or in the endzone ends the game. An incompletion means either a really long FG for Santos, or a Hail Mary on 4th down.

You are left with either an endzone attempt, or an out, which are the two routes Detroit is sitting on.

Whatever went wrong at 15 seconds was the bad clock management part.

Picking up 6 or 7 yards across the middle and calling a TO with a few ticks on the clock was the right move IMO, but the execution (for whatever reason) was beyond awful. Too much time wasted.

Situational football. We always hear Eberflus talking about it. Why didn’t he know what he should’ve done in this situation if the **** hit the fan? 36 some seconds left. Getting into game tying field goal position. Second and third down. 1 timeout. The team is disorganized, frantic and I have a rookie quarterback. Entirely predictable situation. How about a timeout before it’s too late?

because it was NOT a predictable situation, let alone "entirely predictable." getting sacked w/ under 30 seconds to put you just outside of FG range w/ a single TO remaining is an extremely rare situation. all the coaching staff can do there is quickly determine that a TO CANNOT be called there, get a play called in quickly and communicate the urgency of the situation to the QB in case HE's not aware of the situation. they probably didn't do good enough on that last part, because caleb clearly was not operating w/ sufficient urgency

We can quibble about what the plans were, and whatever went wrong. The coach didn’t call timeout.

he wasn't supposed to!

:32 caleb hits the ground
:26 shelton has to tell him to get things moving faster
:16 everyone is lined up properly but play is still being communicated down the line to outer receivers

at that point you still have several seconds to snap the ball and get a short to medium completion and call a TO. every play call except deep route available

:09 everyone ready and looking at caleb. last chance! he surveys the defense like it's a normal play
:07 nantz shouts "you'd better hurry!"
:06 romo follows w/ "oh no" as ball is snapped

so when was flus supposed to call the TO?

maybe he senses the impending disaster just before nance and calls TO w/ 8 secs? now you can only throw a quick sideline route. detroit blankets the sideline and you're highly likely left w/ a hail mary

flus calls TO at ANY OTHER POINT before that you then have to complete a pass and run on the FG unit. and regardless of results we're now saying "WTF didn't you just run another play and THEN call TO to let them set up properly? he really wanted THIS FG unit rushing onto the field?"

[dice]

This hire makes or breaks Poles.

if caleb isn't "the guy" no coach is likely to save poles

[dice]

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.

I think you’re missing the part that Poles chose between the 3 guys THAT WERE PROVIDED to him. I happen to find that part very important because it makes the idea that Flus was “Poles’ guy” only half true. The fact that Flus was retained was at least somewhat plausible at the time because the defense was playing well and it was largely believed they Getsy and Fields were the big problems.

Like I said, I want to believe George McCaskey wouldn’t let Poles hire a new coach. Otherwise I gotta believe Poles has bad judgment.

he showed a lot of patience w/ davis and velus as well. claypool was his only quick admission of mistake

[dice]

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.

keep losing despite caleb improvement until poles is canned. merry xmas to me!

[dice]

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?

TOs remaining is up on the scoreboard behind endzone

[dice]

set the record for most passing yards by a rookie in a Bears season.

[fleet]

No, it was too late. The TO had to be called right at the sack, or when the FG unit was going on the field.

If they call a TO with 15 seconds left, what was the next play?
Remember, it is 3rd and 26, so spiking the ball after a completion is not an option (unless you happen to pick up the first down, AND can get everyone lined up to spike the ball).

Any completion not out of bounds or in the endzone ends the game. An incompletion means either a really long FG for Santos, or a Hail Mary on 4th down.

You are left with either an endzone attempt, or an out, which are the two routes Detroit is sitting on.

Whatever went wrong at 15 seconds was the bad clock management part.

Picking up 6 or 7 yards across the middle and calling a TO with a few ticks on the clock was the right move IMO, but the execution (for whatever reason) was beyond awful. Too much time wasted.

Situational football. We always hear Eberflus talking about it. Why didn’t he know what he should’ve done in this situation if the **** hit the fan? 36 some seconds left. Getting into game tying field goal position. Second and third down. 1 timeout. The team is disorganized, frantic and I have a rookie quarterback. Entirely predictable situation. How about a timeout before it’s too late?

because it was NOT a predictable situation, let alone "entirely predictable." getting sacked w/ under 30 seconds to put you just outside of FG range w/ a single TO remaining is an extremely rare situation. all the coaching staff can do there is quickly determine that a TO CANNOT be called there, get a play called in quickly and communicate the urgency of the situation to the QB in case HE's not aware of the situation. they probably didn't do good enough on that last part, because caleb clearly was not operating w/ sufficient urgency

We can quibble about what the plans were, and whatever went wrong. The coach didn’t call timeout.

he wasn't supposed to!

:32 caleb hits the ground
:26 shelton has to tell him to get things moving faster
:16 everyone is lined up properly but play is still being communicated down the line to outer receivers

at that point you still have several seconds to snap the ball and get a short to medium completion and call a TO. every play call except deep route available

:09 everyone ready and looking at caleb. last chance! he surveys the defense like it's a normal play
:07 nantz shouts "you'd better hurry!"
:06 romo follows w/ "oh no" as ball is snapped

so when was flus supposed to call the TO?

maybe he senses the impending disaster just before nance and calls TO w/ 8 secs? now you can only throw a quick sideline route. detroit blankets the sideline and you're highly likely left w/ a hail mary

flus calls TO at ANY OTHER POINT before that you then have to complete a pass and run on the FG unit. and regardless of results we're now saying "WTF didn't you just run another play and THEN call TO to let them set up properly? he really wanted THIS FG unit rushing onto the field?"

Of course it’s predictable. These scenarios are their job to imagine and have plans for. Or at least be able to call a timeout to get a grasp on.


When? How about right after the sack? Any time that things looked out of control. Immediately I’d say. Any time. I really don’t understand your argument. Is this the argument that with over 30 seconds left it’s too late to call a timeout at any point? What? I didn’t say anything that a litany of NFL coaches and NFL people aren’t saying. Disagreement with Cower and Jimmy Johnson is fair, but I’m going with them dice.

[panthermark]

Based on what I'm seeing (somewhat between the lines), here is a key question.

Did CW change the play and the LOS on the final snap?
If it took forever to snap the ball because CW was changing the play with the clock running, we are all mad at the wrong person. Yes, Flus needed the boot, but if the above is true, that final sequence and that final play had nothing to do with "Flus being Flus" (unless it was a coaching issue). Offense went 16 yards backwards and took themselves out of FG range, then (possibly) wasted time changing routes and the LOS.

-------------
Matt Eberflus' explanation
After the game, Eberflus was asked repeatedly to explain the final sequence and why the Bears didn't use their final timeout. He told reporters that "I like what we did there" and that he was hoping to preserve the final timeout to set up a potential game-tying field goal after running the final play.


"Our hope was because it was third going into fourth [down] that we would re-rack that play at 18 seconds, throw it in bounds, get into field-goal range and call a timeout," Eberflus said. "That’s where it was. That was our decision-making process on that.

"We were outside the field-goal range. We needed to get a few more yards in there, as close as we can get. And then we were gonna call timeout. That’s why we held that last timeout at the end of the game."

Eberflus was then asked why he didn't call a timeout once the game clock ran under 10 seconds.

"We like the play that we had," Eberflus said." We were hoping that [Williams] was going to call it — get the ball snapped. And then we would have called time out right there.

"Once it’s under seven there, then you call timeout there, you’re basically throwing the ball to the end zone. Because once it’s under 12, you can’t throw it inside with no timeout."

'I think we handled it the right way'


Eberflus was then asked what would he have done different in retrospect. That's when he told reporters, "I think we handled it the right way."

"I like what we did there," Eberflus continued. "Again, once it’s under seven ... actually under 12 — really you don’t have an option. Because it’s third into fourth, and you’ve got to throw it into the end zone then.

"I think we handled it the right way. I do believe that you just re-rack the play, get it in bounds and call timeout. That’s why we held it. It didn’t work out the way we wanted it to."
-------

Hate to agree with Flus, but that makes perfect sense to me.
The only thing he could have done differently was call a TO right after the sack, but that leaves you in just as bad a position, and you would only do that if didn't think your offense could not get a play off in 20 or so seconds.