Matt Eberflus needed to do a lot of things to get fired midseason. It had never happened in Chicago Bears history. Yet he managed to pull it off. It came from a variety of factors. There was the ongoing offensive ineptitude sparked mostly by his horrible staff choices. Players hinted at his inability to communicate properly or hold guys accountable. However, his ultimate downfall came from horrific game management, especially in the 4th quarter. Never was that clearer than against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving when he refused to call a timeout with 30 seconds left, allowing the clock to run out despite being just outside field goal range. People were flabbergasted by the gaffe, including those on the opposite sideline, Ben Johnson among them.
The Bears’ new head coach appeared on Breakfast Ball for FS1, where co-host Danny Parkins, a former Chicago radio host for 670 The Score, couldn’t resist asking him about a hypothetical game situation. Then he immediately referenced the Lions game moment for moment. As he did so, Johnson did some that was an unmistakable dig at Eberflus for his awful blunder.
Ben Johnson didn’t need to say anything.
He refused to denounce Eberflus by name, but that single gesture said it all. If he’d just called timeout, it would’ve likely given the Bears a reasonable chance to at least get a field goal opportunity to force overtime. Instead he expected his rookie quarterback, who’d just been sacked on the previous play, to have complete awareness for what he needed to do. That was a cardinal sin for any head coach. It was his job to recognize when his quarterback wasn’t on top of things. The fact he sat there paralyzed on the sideline doing nothing said it all. Even Bill Cowher said after the game that Eberflus “froze.” Ben Johnson will face a situation like that at some point in the future. He’s already aware that he must have far better situational awareness if he wants to avoid becoming the butt of jokes like his predecessor.
