DETROIT — The Bears are a punchline yet again, and the sports media world feasted on coach Matt Eberflus’ mismanagement at the end of their 23-20 loss to the Lions on Thursday.
As the clock wound down and the Bears tried to tie or win the game, it ended on an incomplete pass from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams as time expired. Eberflus allowed the clock to wind from 32 seconds to six between plays and left the game with one timeout unused.
“In 70 years of coaching, I’ve never seen dysfunction that cost a team an opportunity to win the game,” Johnson said on the Fox studio show after the game. “He’s got a rookie quarterback, and different teams do it different ways. I handled clock management and timeouts. Sometimes the quarterback and coach do it. Sometimes the coach has a coach in the box talking to him about clock management.
“But when Eberflus saw they were off track and there was dysfunction, he should’ve called timeout.”
Jimmy Johnson went scorched earth and absolutely lit up Matt Eberflus at halftime of the FOX game. pic.twitter.com/mRMwIobE5N
— Josh Hill (@jdavhill) November 28, 2024
The loss was the Bears’ sixth in a row, dropping them to 4-8 this season and Eberflus to 14-32 in his tenure.