Plenty of people still aren’t happy with Matt Eberflus. His in-game decisions deserve plenty of criticism. That said, nobody can say the guy has lost the Chicago Bears locker room. In truth, he deserves credit for holding it together. Don’t forget where this team was last month. Their first three games of the season were blowout losses, during which the defensive coordinator resigned and the starting quarterback called out the coaches publicly for making him too robotic. Then the Bears coughed up a 28-7 lead in the 4th quarter against Denver, falling 31-28.
Most other coaches would’ve lost the team by that point. Not Eberflus. He somehow kept them focused, and four days later, they finally broke through with a rousing 40-20 beatdown of the Washington Commanders. Sadly, they couldn’t carry that momentum into the next week, suffering a frustrating 19-13 loss to Minnesota. That didn’t discourage Eberflus. While people on the outside saw a team that was still bad, he saw something else. He told the story of what happened next to Albert Breer of the MMQB. It involved a surprisingly boastful speech to the locker room.
“I said, Guys, we’re a team on the rise,” Eberflus says. “They kind of looked at me funny. I was like, No, we are a team on the rise. Look at the scoring. Look at the scoring offense. Twenty-seven points a game. Look at the scoring defense in the last three weeks. Obviously we had to take off some of the defensive touchdowns they scored against us with takeaways, but we were like 15 points a game on defense. I said, Look at the run offense and look at the run defense. We’re doing a lot of good things.”
Matt Eberflus has a fair point.
Both of their victories this season were blowouts. It’s not like the Bears beat the worst teams in the league, either. Washington was 2-2 and had narrowly missed being 3-1 after an overtime loss to the defending NFC champion Eagles. Then, they beat the Atlanta Falcons after the Bears crushed them. Atlanta is currently 4-3. Las Vegas had just beaten the Packers and Patriots in back-to-back games. They boast the #8 pass defense in the league. While not elite, these were two credible opponents, and the Bears crushed them.
In fact, Matt Eberflus could make a case his team probably would’ve won four straight games if they hadn’t given up two fumble returns for touchdowns. Justin Fields had one against Denver, and Bagent had the other against Minnesota. The Bears lost those games by three and six points, respectively. That is how close this team is to being 4-3. So yeah, Eberflus isn’t far off the mark. People can question his decision-making and understanding of how to handle situational football.
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Nobody can dispute his ability to keep his players focused and motivated.
