The Chicago Bears had no shortage of coaching mistakes in their 21-16 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 3, something for which coach Matt Eberflus tried to take –some — accountability during September 22’s postgame.
“That’s on the coaches,” Eberflus said Sunday in regards to him wasting a timeout before the Bears attempted a two-point conversion. “We’ve got to be better there from the top to the bottom, from upstairs down to the bottom. We’ve got to be better there.”
For a second straight loss, Eberflus bungled timeouts and critical game situations for the Bears that cost them. He asked Cairo Santos to attempt a 56-yard field goal on the edge of his kicking range during their opening drive, one that fell short of the goal posts and allowed the Colts to start their first offensive drive at their own 46-yard line.
Eberflus also burned two timeouts at bad moments in the fourth quarter. He wasted the first before a two-point conversation try after rookie quarterback Caleb Williams tagged fellow rookie Rome Odunze with a touchdown pass with 8:21 left in the game, trying to phone in a better play but failing as the Bears wound up with zero points on the play.
Eberflus then called his second of three timeouts with 5:25 left on the clock as the Colts lined up for a 3rd-and-goal attempt from their own 1-yard line. Whatever changes the Bears made during the timeout did not work as the Colts scored immediately afterward.
In the postgame, Eberflus blamed “communication” for the failed two-point conversion, putting the blame squarely on the coaches for the misfire that cost them crucial points. When pressed about the other issues, though, he mostly deflected the questions with positivity and coach-isms, raising more doubts about his capabilities as a head coach.
Matt Eberflus Already on Hot Seat With Bears in 2024
The Bears made a somewhat surprising decision when they elected to keep Eberflus as their head coach after their 7-10 finish in 2023. He had won just 10 of his first 34 games since taking over the job in 2022, but the team — the defense in particular — had rallied behind him late in his second season, suggesting his culture was finally starting to take.
In January, Bears general manager Ryan Poles justified Eberflus’ retention like this:
I really think that the head coach needs to guide the ship when he sees storms and really keep everything settled. When you go through hard times, you need to keep everyone together. I think that’s like a critical piece in a big market like this. You have to be strong. If he’s jumping off a boat and everyone else starts jumping off the boat, it’s a hot mess. So, the stability is a big piece of it.
Poles’ vote of confidence did not take with all of the fan base, though. Many questioned whether Eberflus was the right choice to usher in a new franchise quarterback in the offseason while the Bears were deciding what to do with the No. 1 overall draft choice.
After all, if the Bears mistakenly kept Eberflus in 2024 and then replaced him in 2025, it would repeat the franchise’s previous pattern of saddling their rookie quarterback with a lame-duck coach in his first season and then rebooting it all for him in Year 2.
Frustratingly, though, the Bears appear to be barreling toward the latter scenario just three games into 2024. Eberflus continues to make game-management mistakes that may have been dismissable for a rookie head coach but are more egregious in Year 3. He has also lacked accountability on most subjects, talking more about how “pleased” he has been with the progress than taking ownership of his own coaching mistakes.
The Bears still have time to right the ship with 14 games ahead of them, but Eberflus’ job could be in jeopardy if he cannot help extract the team from its losing patterns.
Bears OC Shane Waldron’s Playcalling Raises Doubts
Eberflus is the head coach and deserves the bulk of the blame for what has gone wrong with the Bears through their first three games. That said, Shane Waldron — the team’s new offensive coordinator for the 2024 season — has also been part of the problem.
Waldron’s first three games have been disastrous. The Bears rank as the third-worst rushing offense in the league (before Monday night’s games), averaging just 72.7 yards per game in the first three weeks. As a result, the offense has leaned heavily on Williams — who has the second-most 118 passing attempts in the NFL in three games — as their primary playmaker despite a lackluster line that offers him little protection.
The Bears can chalk up some of their shortcomings to Williams’ rookie growing pains, but Waldron has also made questionable personnel and playcalling decisions. Nothing better exemplifies his playcalling ineptitude than the sequence he called on the Bears’ red-zone drive against the Colts in the second quarter that started at the 4-yard line.
After two consecutive runs up the middle, Waldron tasked 5-foot-8 DeAndre Carter with blocking 267-pound Colts defensive end Tyquan Lewis on a third up-the-middle run for Khalil Herbert. Carter handily lost the matchup, resulting in no gain on the play. He then called a baffling pistol speed option play to D’Andre Swift on 4th-and-goal, on which the left side of the line failed to set the edge, resulting in Swift losing 12 yards.
Eberflus defended Waldron’s play-call in the postgame — which is another indictment against him as a head coach — but he might not be able to keep it up if Waldron cannot put together a better plan and get the offense back on track in the coming weeks. And if that happens, expect Waldron’s seat to heat up exponentially alongside Eberflus’ seat.
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