The Chicago Bears finally fired Matt Eberflus after a groundswell of criticism engulfed the former head coach across a six-game losing streak.
Several players openly challenged and/or questioned Eberflus and his staff throughout the season, beginning after the loss to the Washington Commanders on a last-second Hail Mary pass in Week 8 and carrying through three consecutive one-score losses to each team in the NFC North Division over the past three weeks.
That said, there was relative social media silence from the locker room when Chicago cut ties with Eberflus on Friday, November 29, save for one exception — safety Jaquan Brisker. Brisker, who hasn’t played in a game since suffering a concussion against the Carolina Panthers on October 6, took to his X account with a series of posts about Eberflus’s departure.
“Wake me up! Please,” Brisker wrote after the team’s late-game clock management fiasco against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day.
“😂,” Brisker followed up after the initial news of Eberflus’s firing broke.
“God don’t make mistakes,” Brisker added less than two hours later.
Matt Eberflus Made Several Egregious Errors in Late-Game Situations This Season
GettyChicago Bears former head coach Matt Eberflus (left) and safety Jaquan Brisker (right).
The final straw for general manager Ryan Poles was how Eberflus managed the end of the game against the Lions on Thursday afternoon, which was televised nationally as the first contest of the Thanksgiving holiday and competed with zero other NFL games for viewership.
Chicago clawed its way to a 23-20 deficit and moved the football into field goal range with less than a minute to play on the road against the league’s best team by record to this point in the season. Quarterback Caleb Williams took a sack on second down with approximately 30 seconds remaining on the clock that pushed the Bears to the edge of field goal range.
The team had a timeout remaining, but Eberflus chose not to call it. Williams didn’t snap the ball until there were six seconds left on the clock and threw a deep pass incomplete that ended the outing.
In the aftermath, Eberflus said he believed the coaching staff handled the situation correctly, adding that the plan was to snap the ball with 18 seconds, run a play and call a timeout before a field goal try. Chicago’s former head coach also said he believed he would remain in his job until the Bears face off against the San Francisco 49ers on December 8.
Thomas Brown Takes Over for Matt Eberflus as Bears Head Coach
GettyFormer Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus.
The anger and the laughter from fans and critics reached new levels of volume in the aftermath of the Bears’ latest loss and Eberflus’s latest excuse/denial. And as it turns out, he didn’t make it another 24 hours in the job.
Interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, who was the pass game coordinator just four games ago, will now step into the role of interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Chicago still has to play the Niners, the Seattle Seahawks and all three of its divisional opponents (each of which has at least nine wins already) to finish the season, which means more losing is likely on the immediate horizon.
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