Buried beneath the Bears’ furious fourth-quarter rally against the Vikings on Sunday before falling flat in overtime, the game was littered with more red flags on coach Matt Eberflus.
Long before rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ heroics to tie it at the end of regulation and the Vikings’ chip-shot field goal to win 30-27 in overtime, Eberflus’ Bears did plenty to hinder their chances. He loves to talk about “staying together” in tough times, but rarely mentions that the adversity usually is a mess of their own making.
Of all the errors, the most egregious was on a crucial play in the third quarter. For a coach already on the brink with a 14-31 record and a lot of negative marks on his ledger, this might have been the tipping point for his bosses.
Down 17-10 and facing fourth-and-four at the Vikings’ 27-yard line, Eberflus chose correctly to go for it. But even when he happens to get it right, he still gets it wrong.
Confusion ensued as Bears kicker Cairo Santos and long snapper Scott Daly ran onto the field thinking they were kicking a field goal, and that sparked disarray as the play clock dwindled.
“I don’t know what was going on right there,” wide receiver DJ Moore said. “We all were looking like, ‘Why is Cairo running out here?’
“I was looking at them like, ‘Are we getting off or no? Why are we all not on the same page?’”
Great question.
An offensive lineman waved at Santos and Daly to go back, and they returned to the sideline with 25 seconds on the play clock. Williams to the huddle with 15 seconds left, was still adjusting the formation at the line of scrimmage with three to go and barely got the snap off before he would’ve been flagged for delay of game.
All the disorder and hurry culminated in Williams running the wrong play because he didn’t hear the call clearly from offensive coordinator Thomas Brown and throwing an incomplete pass to Keenan Allen.
“In those moments, you don’t really want to run up against the clock because you want to get set and have your play and be able to see what’s going on,” Williams said. “The confusion had the play come in a little bit later. We got to the huddle and were trying to scramble, and I end up mishearing what T.B. said, and from there it went down downhill.”
Total disorganization under the direction of a coach who promised everything about the Bears would be well run once he was in charge. It’s inexcusable.
Eberflus, of course, was a fountain of apologies after the game.
“I have to do a better job of communicating everything to everybody,” Eberflus said. “I might have been late and then he was maybe late giving the call… I just have to do a better job of communicating that. I wasn’t as clear as I usually am.”
Coaches who constantly have to talk about doing a better job usually lose theirs.
Eberflus said he was thinking four-down territory when the Bears snapped the ball on third-and-nine the play before, but apparently didn’t share that with everyone.
One option would’ve been for Williams or Eberflus to call a timeout, but Eberflus had burned one unsuccessfully challenging a 69-yard pass from Sam Darnold to Jordan Addison — the biggest play the Bears have allowed this season — on the first play of the second half. He’s 0 for 4 on challenges this season.
Williams didn’t want to call a timeout because he knew the Bears already were down one and he anticipated needing it later in a tight game.
Williams was great, by the way, and lit them up for 340 yards, two touchdowns and a 103.1 passer rating. But he seems to be shining in spite of Eberflus, not because of him.