Matt Eberflus’ Last Chance To Save Himself Ends In Horribly Fitting Fashion

It was right there. After three miserable weeks, Matt Eberflus had a chance to revive his hopes of saving his job. All he had to do was close out the Green Bay Packers in the 4th quarter. The Chicago Bears had the lead 19-14. The Packers weren’t getting many chunk plays. One more stop could do it. Then, as has become routine, it all fell apart. A coverage bust on Christian Watson led to a 60-yard gain. To make it worse, Eberflus challenged the ruling if it was a catch despite only having two timeouts left. The call was upheld, dropping it to only one.

Green Bay scored two plays later. Once again, Eberflus’ defense failed to shut the door in the 4th quarter.

Still, there was enough time left for Caleb Williams and the offense to save the day. They came so close to doing so. The rookie quarterback made three big-time throws, including a 4th down conversion to Rome Odunze that put Chicago at the Packers 30-yard line. There were 35 seconds left, and the Packers had just called a timeout. However, rather than work to make the field goal easier, Eberflus did exactly what you’d expect. He ran the ball, got two yards, and sent out Cairo Santos for a 46-yard attempt.

You can pretty much guess what happened next.

Matt Eberflus is the king of gutwrenching losses.

Put another way, he is a choker. There is no arguing against it at this point. The evidence is overwhelming. Dropping double-digit leads to Denver, Detroit, and Cleveland last year was bad enough since the head coach ran the defense for all of them. Yet it was the past two heartbreakers that hurt him the most because both losses can be directly attributed to his bad decisions. He called soft coverage that set up the Hail Mary in Washington and then failed to call a timeout when Tyrique Stevenson wasn’t paying attention. This time, he again allowed busted plays to let the opponent go ahead and coached scared when his team was in a position to win.

He had 35 seconds left and a timeout in his pocket. Cairo Santos was 141-of-148 (95%) in his career from inside 40 yards. Chicago just needed seven more. Instead, Matt Eberflus settled for a 46-yarder despite knowing Santos was 64-of-81 (79%) in that range and already having a kick blocked this year. Once again, the situational awareness ruined a winnable game. This is why Eberflus cannot stick around beyond this season. He finds ways to lose.