Matt Eberflus had every reason to be furious after the Chicago Bears‘ heartbreaking 31-30 loss to the Detroit Lions. His team held a 24-10 advantage in the 4th quarter and was in control until the refs almost single-handedly sparked the comeback with a series of brutal penalty calls. It started with an unnecessary roughness on Kyler Gordon for knocking Jared Goff out of bounds after a 10-yard run. Then it was back-to-back illegal hands-to-the-face calls on Jaylon Johnson. The second one negated what should’ve been a backbreaking interception by Jack Sanborn.
Most coaches would’ve been furious talking about the penalties after the game. Not Eberflus. Yes, he agrees some of those calls were questionable at best. However, he also pointed out that his players must be smarter in those situations. They were the ones who put themselves in spots to have those calls made. Note this quote about the roughness call on Gordon. Even though it was clear on camera that Goff fell down rather than get knocked out, the rookie still should’ve known better than to risk it.
“You can agree or disagree with that call, but we have to be smart as defensive players when it is the quarterback, knowing that they’re going to protect those guys.
They got a nice chunk of change there from that penalty, and then we had a couple penalties in a row after that.”
Matt Eberflus used that moment to instruct rather than complain.
That is what intelligent coaches do. When they have an opportunity to make their players better, they take it. There is a reason he preaches the H.I.T.S principle all the time. He knows the fastest way to lose football games is when a team beats itself through too many penalties. Chicago had nine total on Sunday against Detroit, the most they’ve had this season. Mistakes like that always decide tight games. It isn’t a coincidence that two of their three wins this year saw them tie or win the penalty battle.
Make no mistake. Matt Eberflus is every bit as angry with the refs for their blunders as everybody else. The key difference is he recognizes that venting that anger at the NFL is entirely pointless. It won’t change the final outcome of the game. His best course of action is coaching his players to be smarter in those situations. Correcting them now improves the odds of similar mistakes not happening again down the road. That is another sign this guy knows how to coach.
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