Once a loser of 14-straight, are the vibes around Bears coach Matt Eberflus changing for good?
The Bears hit their low point Oct. 1 when they blew a 21-point lead at home to lose their 14th-straight game. With about three minutes to play and the game tied, the same Broncos team that had allowed 70 points one week earlier stuffed Khalil Herbert on fourth-and-a-half-yard and eventually kicked a field goal to win.
Afterward, coach Matt Eberflus explained why he went for it on fourth down but couldn’t quite articulate what happened to disgruntled receiver Chase Claypool, who was inactive. Eberflus said at first that the Bears gave him the option to stay home or come to Soldier FIeld, but a team spokesman later said the team forced him to stay home.
Eberflus preached optimism after the game.
“I certainly can see things moving in the right direction for our football team,” he said then.
Few in town believed him. The Bears were a mess. His time in charge seemed destined to be short.
Fast forward exactly 300 days, and the mood is different. Eberflus’ hot seat has grown into a more comfortable chair. He won’t achieve stability this season without winning games, but he’s in a position that would have seemed impossible in Week 4 last year.
The man who at times last season was the betting favorite to be the first NFL coach fired now sits atop a different list — he’s the favorite to win 2024 NFL Coach of the Year, per VegasInsider.com.
Ask Eberflus if he can appreciate how far he and the Bears have come in those 300 days, and he stops the question at the mention of the 14-game losing streak.
“That’s a 'Debbie Downer' question …” he said Saturday with a playful glint in his eye. “Was that Saturday Night Live that said that? Yeah. We’ve got reruns.”
He draws chuckles. The question continues.
“Is our roster in a better position than it was in Year 1 and Year 2? Yes. No question,” Eberflus said. “There should be optimism, but we have a lot of work to do on the grass before we get to the first game. So we know what our vision is, but we have to focus on our mission.”
The mission: to win now. That’s what the Bears have been built to do.
The odds to win Coach of the Year are a direct reflection of the change in Eberflus’ situation. In the last 300 days, his roster has been stacked with veteran Pro Bowl players Montez Sweat, Keenan Allen, Kevin Byard and D’Andre Swift.
The Bears drafted USC quarterback Caleb Williams first overall and Washington receiver Rome Odunze ninth. Williams, more than anyone else, positions the Bears to be good for years to come — if he becomes who the team believes he can be.
“Being straightforward,” tight end Cole Kmet said, “when you see Caleb, it brings a lot of optimism.”
To get to this point, though, required Eberflus holding the team together. Players understood where the roster stood in 2022, when the Bears spent $93 million in salary cap space for players no longer on the team to reset their finances. They went 3-14, posting the worst record in the NFL. Last season started with four-straight losses and the dismissal of defensive coordinator Alan Williams, prompting Eberflus to take over play-calling.
“Like coach said, when things are low, when things aren’t going your way, you stay together,” said receiver Velus Jones, who was drafted three months after Eberflus was hired. “That’s what everybody did. …
“What are you gonna do when those things happen? Are you gonna split apart, start pointing fingers and make it an individual game? I feel like a lot of these guys, they really care for each other, have a lot of love for each other, it’s a real brotherhood. The coaching staff and the teammates, I feel like everyone’s on one accord.”
Serving as a head coach for the first time at any level of football, Eberflus lost 18 of his first 21 games, the worst start in Bears history. In film sessions, he found the things the Bears were doing wrong — but also what they were doing right.
“Flus did a good job just keeping us in it that way and showing us the good things we were doing, and obviously correcting the mistakes we had,” Kmet said. “Showing us, 'You guys can be a high-end football team.'”
Eberflus grew a beard this offseason and has grown more relaxed in public settings — an intentional decision on his behalf but also a function of no longer being mired in a historic losing streak. Just joking about “Debbie Downer” is something he wouldn’t have tried in a press conference setting last year.
He’s maturing into his first-ever head coaching job at any level.
“The process of learning to be a head coach. …” Kmet said. “As a defensive coordinator you’re calling plays and motivating defensive guys — now you’ve gotta motivate a whole team. There’s a political aspect to what you have to show as a head coach. You’re a spokesman for the team. You have to be good with (the media). You have to be good at the podium.”
That personality figures to show through on “Hard Knocks” next month, when he has a chance to up his approval rating among Bears fans.
The best way to accomplish long-term goodwill, though, is to do what one Bears coach has accomplished in 11 years — win more games than he loses this season.
“The mission is to get to the first game, the best prepared team that we can be, and playing at a very high level, the best we can for that first game,” Eberflus said. “And then we’ve got to get better every single week as we go.”