The Chicago Bears announced on Friday that head coach Matt Eberflus had been sacked.
Less than twenty-four hours after the Bears’ humiliating 23–20 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Detroit Lions, the decision to make the change was made. In their 105-year history, the Bears had never changed their head coach in the middle of the season, but the severity of the defeat on national television led to the decision to take a different approach.
As the squad gets ready for a game against the San Francisco 49ers on December 8, Thomas Brown, who was recently designated Chicago’s interim offensive coordinator after Eberflus ousted offensive coordinator Shane Waldron earlier this month, will take over as interim head coach.
In a statement issued Friday afternoon, Bears general manager Ryan Poles stated, “We informed Matt of our decision to move in a different direction with the leadership of our football team and the head-coaching position after meeting with [chairman George H. McCaskey] and [president and CEO Kevin Warren] this morning.” I appreciate Matt’s diligence, professionalism, and commitment to our company. We are appreciative of his dedication to the Chicago Bears and wish him and his family the very best in their future endeavors.
The Bears’ loss to the Lions was maybe their worst in years and brought their losing streak to six games. The Bears had an opportunity to at least try a game-tying field goal in the closing seconds after rallying from a 23-7 hole to go within 23-20 behind rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.
With 32 seconds remaining, the Bears had the ball on the Lions 41. To stop the clock, Eberflus could have called for Williams to spike the football or used his final timeout. Williams had to hurl a deep pass toward wide receiver Rome Odunze, but it dropped incomplete as time ran out because Eberflus did neither.
Although the Bears (4-8) had a 4-2 record at the beginning of the season, they haven’t recovered from a loss to the Washington Commanders in Week 8, where quarterback Jayden Daniels connected with wide receiver Noah Brown on a Hail Mary tipped pass for a touchdown on the game’s final play.
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