Bears fire coach Matt Eberflus after six straight losses, criticizing clock management

By Dianna Russini, Jeff Howe, Adam Jahns and Kevin Fishbain

The Chicago Bears fired Matt Eberflus on Friday, making the first in-season coaching change in franchise history, less than 24 hours after a three-point loss to the Detroit Lions in which Eberflus was widely criticized for his clock management.

The loss dropped the Bears to 4-8 on the season and 14-32 in Eberflus’ two-plus seasons in Chicago. He was 5-19 in one-score games and 2-13 in the NFC North.

Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will serve as interim head coach.

“We understand how imperative the role of head coach is to building and maintaining a championship-caliber team that leads our players and our organization,” Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren said in a statement. “Our fans have supported us and weathered every challenge, and they deserve better results. Our organizational and operational structure is strong, focused, aligned and energized for the future.”

News of the shooting came less than three hours after Eberflus held his post-match press conference on Friday. At the time, Eberflus said he was “confident” he would lead the Bears against the San Francisco 49ers next week. He added that he had a typical postgame meeting with Warren and general manager Ryan Poles, and would meet with them again on Friday.

He also addressed Chicago’s clock management late in Thursday’s game, when the Bears made just one play in the final 32 seconds despite still having a timeout as they tried to tie or win the game. and said that “the operation was not fast enough” on the final play.

Eberflus is the fourth head coach fired by the Bears in the past 11 seasons. Eberflus, defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts and former linebackers coach for the Dallas Cowboys, took over the Bears’ job in 2022 after Matt Nagy was fired. He brought his “HITS” philosophy to Halas Hall: hustle, intensity, taking the ball away and playing smart.

In his final season as head coach, his fundamentals didn’t translate on the field, especially during a six-game losing streak that started when the Bears lost in a Hail Mary to the Washington Commanders in Week 8.

GO DEEPER

Matt Eberflus explains why Bears didn’t use TO at the end of the game against Lions

That moment — when cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was talking and gesturing to the fans as the play started and then tapped the ball into the hands of Commander receiver Noah Brown — seemed to break the team. It was Stevenson’s job to beat Brown.

After the game, Eberflus was criticized inside and outside the building for allowing a 12-yard pass for the Hail Mary, not calling a timeout before the game-winning play and not taking responsibility for those mistakes. He defended offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s decision earlier in the game to hand the ball off to backup center Doug Kramer at the goal line. Kramer fumbled.

That night against the commanders was the beginning of the end for Eberflus. He fired Waldron 16 days later and after two more frustrating losses. Waldron’s offense failed against the New England Patriots, who had one of the worst defenses in the league, in a 19–3 loss.

During his Bears tenure, Eberflus had three play callers, firing Luke Getsy after the 2023 season and letting Waldron go after just nine games this season.

The warning signs that emerged earlier this season after an attack on Waldron turned into real concerns that needed to be addressed internally and outside of meetings with team leadership. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ development seemed to be in trouble – and nothing else mattered this season. The Bears promoted Brown to offensive coordinator. An immediate spark followed. Williams and other offensive players, especially the veterans, acquired Brown.

But while the offense improved thanks to Brown’s play calling, the Bears’ once-proud defense regressed this season under Eberflus. He was an offshoot of the Lovie Smith/Rod Marinelli tree of defensive coaching. But his HITS philosophy did not produce a winning record.

GO DEEPER

Very different stories are unfolding for the Bears on defense and offense

Chairman George McCaskey, Warren and Polen were given the opportunity to align Williams’ roster with a new coach, but opted to stay with Eberflus. He had impressed them with the way he “steadied the ship,” the Poles said, during a losing streak and multiple coaching removals in 2023. Eberflus’ defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned and the team fired running backs coach David Walker . The human resources department was involved in both decisions.

This season started with higher expectations than the Bears had seen since 2019. With No. 1 Williams in the fold, along with the team’s best trio of receivers in more than a decade and a talented defense, there was more attention on Chicago. That became even bigger with HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’, which put Eberflus in the national spotlight.

A dominant win in London over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team’s third straight win, seemed to put the Bears on the right path. They were 4-2, and a fourth-quarter comeback at Washington in Week 8 put them in position to go 5-2. Then the Hail Mary happened.

McCaskey took over as team president in 2011. During that time, the team has fired Smith, Marc Trestman, John Fox, Nagy and now Eberflus. They haven’t won a playoff game and have had at least five losing games in four of the last five seasons.

Required reading

(Photo: Quinn Harris/Getty Images)