Bears coach Matt Eberflus and his staff are taking their lumps after the Bears disappointing performance in a 21-16 loss to the Colts on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium. And Eberflus was accountable for his role in it.
Eberflus acknowledged “we didn’t get the look we wanted” on offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s ill-fated option play on fourth-and-goal from the Colts’ 1-yard line, with running back D’Andre Swift losing 12 yards.
Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams could have changed the play at the line of scrimmage or called time out, but did neither in his third NFL game.
“If you don’t like it, you can alert to something else,” Eberflus said. “Talking to Caleb, he just didn’t feel he had the time to do that. They broke the huddle at 10 [seconds left on the play clock] and worked it down and maybe snapped it at five. That’s just what it was. We didn’t get the look we wanted.”
But the coaching staff was culpable for theplay that set up the fourth down — running back Khalil Herbert was stopped for no gain on third-and-goal at the 1 when Colts 6-3, 267-pound defensive end Tyquan Lewis obliterated Bears 5-8, 190-pound wide receiver DeAndre Carter to make the stop. That matchup was a mistake.
“Absolutely,” Eberflus said. “In fact, Shane and I watched the tape at 6:30 [Monday] morning and we talked that through. That’s got to be a better call and a better matchup there.”
And the coaching staff also took the blame for having to call a time out to clear up confusion about a two-point conversion after Williams’ one-yard touchdown pass to Rome Odunze cut the Colts’ lead to 14-9 with 8:21 left in the fourth quarter.
“That was just not good,” Eberflus said. “We need to be better there as coaches — communicating across the board … that we are going for two, because we’re down five. Obviously that’s the No. 1 thing you do.
“When I saw it wasn’t, I called a time out to make sure we got the guys ready and got them alerted and got the best play we had for that situation. That’s gotta be better. We’ve been great at that. We just have to be better in that moment.”
Injury report
Cornerback Terrell Smith, left tackle Braxton Jones, defensive end Darrell Taylor, defensive tackle Andrew Billings and wide receiver DJ Moore were dinged in the game Sunday. But Smith was “the only significant injury,” Eberflus said. The others returned to the game.
You call that progress?
The Bears’ defense lost a takeaway when Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson’s fumble that Billings recovered was nullified by officials ruling Richardson’s forward progress was stopped as he was being sacked by Montez Sweat.
“They [the officials] were telling me the forward progress stopped and they blew the whistle and it was already done … and you can’t challenge that,” Eberflus said. “We caused that really good strip-sack there. If that was challengeable, we would’ve done it. But unfortunately it wasn’t. But it was a really good play. We’re excited about the rush on that play.”
Pushed around
Colts running back Trey Sermon scored on a one-yard run when Richardson and the Colts’ offense pushed Sermon — and the Bears defense — into the end zone.
“I thought they called it dead because I thought his forward progress stopped,” Bears safety Kevin Byard said. “I feel I got a good hit on him, stood him up. Maybe I could just go and pick up his legs or something and stop him completely.”
It’s a tough situation, but never a good look for the defense.
“It’s frustrating,” Byard said. “But we can’t let them get all the way down there to get in that situation. But it was definitely frustrating but it is what it is.”