It’s been quite the week for former Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus. After being fired by the Bears last November, Eberflus has been trying to pick up the pieces as the defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys, and things are not going well.
Caleb Williams took his turn making Eberflus his punching bag in Sunday’s 31-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys, throwing for 298 yards and four touchdowns. To make matters worse, the Dallas defense hasn’t responded to Eberflus’s coaching, as they rank second-worst in the NFL, averaging 6.5 yards per play allowed this season, and their 92 points allowed are the sixth-most entering Week 3.
With Eberflus’s job security as thin as ever, this might be a good time for him to consider what he may be doing to cause the Cowboys problems. But, much like he did with the Bears, he shifted the blame to everyone around him rather than taking a hard look in the mirror.
“Really disappointed in the performance,” Eberflus said of Sunday’s loss to the Bears, via Jon Machota of The Athletic. “A few plays I thought our guys played well in the run game, but we got to have better discipline with our eyes in our coverage. We worked hard at that during the course of the week and we’ll continue to do that.”
Matt Eberflus Still Won’t Take Accountability for His Actions After Bears Firing
Eberflus’s comments may be true, but they’re also part of a pattern that has shipwrecked his coaching career. After guiding the Bears to a 4-2 start last season, Chicago lost its next 10 games, which, ultimately, cost Eberflus his job. But those results also fell on his shoulders several times.
One of the most glaring incidents happened during Week 7 of the 2024 season when the Bears were leading the Washington Commanders late in the game. With the Commanders trying to drive down the field for the game-winning score, Eberflus deployed a prevent defense, allowing Jayden Daniels to connect with Terry McLaurin for a 13-yard gain.
That completion allowed Daniels to heave a 52-yard Hail Mary that was tipped at the goal line by Tyrique Stevenson, who was taunting the crowd when the ball was snapped, rather than paying attention, and was completed to Noah Brown for the win. After that embarrassing outcome, Eberflus claimed the reception that set up the Hail Mary attempt “didn’t matter,” even though it helped Daniels get the ball to the end zone.
“Because you’re defending [a] touchdown, right? You’re defending a touchdown there,” Eberflus said, via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “Them throwing the ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever that is doesn’t really matter. It’s always going to come down to that last play.”
A similar event happened during a Thanksgiving Day loss to the Detroit Lions. With the clock winding down and his team facing a third-and-26, Eberflus refused to call a timeout after Caleb Williams scrambled to put the Bears in position for a potential game-winning field goal. Eberflus was fired the next day, but star cornerback Jaylon Johnson admitted there was some frustration among Bears players, and Cronin reported that one anonymous player referred to the situation as a “s*** show.”
There isn’t much evidence outside of the results, but it seems like the messages being sent by Eberflus aren’t getting through to his new players the same way they didn't in Chicago. In an attempt to distance himself even further from any blame for the defense's lack of success, Eberflus also suggested the Cowboys’ defensive struggles were a result of poor communication and their lack of experience in his system.
“I just think it’s growth,” Eberflus said, via Machota. “These guys are in a new system. … Has it been where we want it to be so far? No, it hasn’t. … It’s important that we just stay consistent, stay in the process.”
Eberflus hasn’t learned from his mistakes in Chicago, as he is already repeating them in Dallas. If he continues to do so, he could be out of another job, which would only prove the Bears were right to show him the door after things came to a head last season.