Here's the Real Reason Why the Bears Fired Matt Eberflus

After the Chicago Bears sent head coach Matt Eberflus packing, I wrote a deep dive on all that was wrong with Eberflus's tenure in Chicago. The pattern of blown leads, baffling late-game clock management, questionable coordinator and coaching hires, and more. I actually barely touched one subject -- and that was his losing the locker room.

One thing I did mention, however, was his lack of taking accountability for decisions that didn't work out. Even if they were defensible decisions that backfired.

Let's start with the Hail Mary failure against the Washington Commanders. Eberflus chose to give the Commanders an easy completion on the previous play, figuring that defending the end zone was all that mattered.

The logic here can be argued either way. If you agree with Eberflus, you'd point out that a Hail Mary pass would still be difficult to complete and the Bears would be able to avoid any defensive breakdowns that could lead to a long touchdown. If you disagree, you'd argue that a more agressive defensive approach from the Bears might prevent the Commanders from even getting close enough to attempt a Hail Mary.

Either way, Eberflus had at least one timeout available. He should've used one to make sure the defense was ready for the Hail Mary, and didn't.

After each baffling and bizarre end-game failure, Eberflus tried to explain his thought process to reporters. That's commendable -- too many coaches are too worried about taking flack and just toss out word salad. The problem is that Eberflus's logic could be head-scratching. And even if you can understand why he made the choice he did, you never heard Eberflus take accountability for it.

Going back to the Hail Mary, Eberflus should've said that his decision on the penultimate play, while perhaps defensible, didn't work and that's on him. He should've taken responsibility for not using a timeout to organize his defense.

Another example would be his final game as Bears coach, when he kept a timeout in his back pocket as time ticked away. He had an explanation for what he was thinking -- he wanted to get a play run after rookie quarterback Caleb Williams took a sack. He'd then use the timeout to set up a potentially game-tying field goal.

Let's leave aside for a second that this explanation doesn't quite hold water -- even if the Bears burned that last timeout with 30-something seconds remaining, they'd still have time to get the ball into field-goal range and clock it before attempting the kick.

The problem is that Eberflus spent more time explaining the decision in the immediate aftermath than he did taking ownership for the failure to give his team a better chance to tie or win the game.

Take accountability first, perform explanations later.

Reporting from The Athletic also suggests Eberflus had no answers for his players in the locker room in Detroit. He should've simply apologized to the team immediately.

I will end this by saying that I finally finished the Hard Knocks documentary about Bears' training camp on Friday. I'd not had a chance to watch most of it earlier in the season, and with Eberflus being launched I'd figured I'd finally finish it. I noticed that when Eberflus was shown, he came across as a nice, positive guy with some good teaching skills. Of course, the Bears had editorial control and possibly made sure we saw the best version of Eberflus. But it's unlikely that he was a jerk or toxic to work with.

Instead, he seemed in over his head when it came to game management -- and never improved over three seasons. But worse than that, he never seemed to own his mistakes.

That is why he's the first Bears' head coach to ever be fired in midseason. Moreso than the won-loss record, or even the in-game failures themselves. Eberflus is unemployed because he never could hold himself to the same standard he held his players.

There are other factors, but that's the main one. It's just that simple.

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