The Chicago Bears went through the Matt Eberflus experience for nearly three years. The team had a 14-32 record under his guidance, and it took a six-game losing streak for the front office to finally pull the plug on him.
Besides the team's glaring struggles on offense, the way Eberflus dealt with critcisim often rubbed the fans the wrong way. There was little to no accountability, and he always seemed to have an excuse for his miscues.
That's why, even though it's been just one game, his successor seems to be much better at that. As shown by Brendan Sugrue on X, coach Johnson took the blame for the decision not to go for a touchback late in the game after scoring a touchdown.
Ben Johnson Takes Accountability For Week 1 Loss
"Listen, (this is the) last time I'm gonna bring up last game," Johnson said. "I got greedy, and I wanted the extra five yards. That's why we tried to kick it out of the back of the endzone. Simple as that, okay?" Johnson said.
Of course, it would be better not to have to justify things like this, but there will always be mistakes. It's the human part of the game, and we're talking about a first-year head coach making his debut as the main guy.
If anything, it was refreshing to hear someone taking accountability for a change, especially considering how it was usually dealt with during the previous administration.
Eberflus once said that he didn't use the final timeout in a three-point loss to the Detroit Lions to set up a potential game-tying field goal. That tracks, but even when things didn't go his way, he repeated that he "liked what they did there."
That was also the case when he allowed the Washington Commanders to get some extra yards before their now-infamous Hail Mary win. He said that gaining those yards "didn't really matter" because they would still have to get the job done in the final play, which they did. That would've been a whole lot more difficult if they had been farther away from the endzone, though.
Eberflus also challenged a 69-yard reception because it was an "explosive play," even though there was no evidence (or doubt, for what it's worth) that it had been a completed catch.
But perhaps the most frustrating thing was that Eberlus often threw his players under the bus and talked about poor exceution instead of focusing on the subpar game plan, lack of in-game adjustments, and bad play-calling.
Johnson has coached the young players hard since he took the reins of the team, and he's held them accountable on occasion. But at the end of the day, he knows he's responsible for the team's performance, and so far, he's done a good job of dealing with criticism.