EDITOR'S NOTE: The Chicago Bears fired head coach Matt Eberflus shortly after speaking with reporters on Friday morning, and offensive coordinator Thomas Brown as been named interim coach by the club.
Matt Eberflus remains in charge of the 2024 Chicago Bears.
In the aftermath of bungling the ending of Thanksgiving's 23-20 loss to the Lions, Eberflus told reporters on Friday that it's business as usual, and he's preparing for Week 14’s game against San Francisco.
"I'm just going to be working on finishing up this game, doing a good job of evaluating that, our after-action report like we always do," he said. "And then I'll be working into San Francisco. Again, those are conversations we'll have, and again I'm confident I'll be working on to San Francisco and getting ready for that game."
The embattled coach noted that he met with team president Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles after Thursday's loss -- as he does following every game -- and will again later on Friday.
The Bears got off to a sluggish start Sunday, but an end-of-half forced fumble turned the tide. Caleb Williams threw three second-half touchdowns, getting Chicago into a position to tie or win the game in regulation.
Then, disaster.
Williams took a sack with 32 seconds left. Eberflus eschewed a chance to call an immediate timeout, hoping to get a play off and then use his final clock-stoppage. However, the rookie quarterback drained too much of the clock before snapping the ball with six seconds remaining. A deep shot to Rome Oduze was off the mark, and the Bears left Detroit with a timeout in their pocket and another L.
"Our hope was at 15 to 10 seconds, once that sack occurred, that we would get the play off and be able to utilize that timeout there," Eberflus said. "Once you get past a certain point, using a timeout, the fast field goal really takes a certain amount of time. And once you're past a certain point, our hope was that the ball would be snapped at 15 to 10, and then we would call the timeout right there."
It didn't happen. With a rookie QB, it was on Eberflus to take command of the situation. He failed, making his already calescent seat in Chicago scorching.
"I watched the whole last drive with (offensive coordinator) Thomas (Brown) this morning," Eberflus said. "Talked to him about all the details about the calls in terms of where we were, and I thought the operation was good. Just the penalties I thought put us behind the sticks a couple times there. We were in scoring position and really could've owned the game from there. But again, ultimately all these decisions are my decisions. I take full accountability for them. We didn't get it done and it's unfortunate for the players, for the fans, and again we're gonna get back to work. We've got San Francisco coming up. [I'll] watch the tape today again, and then get on to San Francisco."
A sixth consecutive loss dropped the Bears to 4-8. It marks the fourth straight season Chicago has started with four or fewer wins through 12 weeks. Eberflus has been the head coach for three seasons.
