The Chicago Bears have fired head coach Matt Eberflus following their Thanksgiving Day defeat to the Detroit Lions on Thursday evening.Â
Eberflus and the Bears squandered the chance to take the Lions to time beyond regulation by neglecting to name a timeout whereas trailing 23-20 and in search of to get into subject objective vary within the remaining seconds of the sport.
It resulted in Chicago struggling their sixth straight defeat as they fell to 4-8 on the 12 months on the backside of the NFC North.
NFL Community’s Ian Rapoport confirmed the dismissal of Eberflus, who turns into the primary head coach within the franchise’s 100-plus 12 months historical past to be fired in the course of a season.
Thomas Brown will now take over as interim coach, having been promoted to offensive coordinator following the firing of Shane Waldron earlier within the marketing campaign.
The firing of Eberflus got here simply hours after he had outlined his confidence that he would nonetheless be head coach in Week 14 whereas chatting with reporters.
He departs with a document of 14-32 after being appointed as head coach in January 2022 following his time as Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator.
The Bears had threatened to upset the Tremendous Bowl-chasing Lions on Thursday once they got here from 16-0 after which 23-7 down after three quarters to maneuver inside three factors of Dan Campbell’s aspect due to a Caleb Williams-inspired resurgence. However a horrendous instance of clock administration would value them and Eberflus as Williams took a sack with 32 seconds left earlier than 26 seconds got here off the clock till the Bears lastly ran their play, at which level it was too late.
“I like what we did there,” Eberflus mentioned after the sport. “Again, once it’s under seven (seconds), you’re going to call a timeout there, actually under 12 and then really you don’t have an option because it’s third (down) to fourth, you have to throw it into the end zone then.
“To me it is, I believe we dealt with it the correct approach, I do imagine that you just simply re-rack the play, get it in bounds and name timeout, and that is why we held it and did not work out the way in which we wished it to.”
It continued a gruelling run of type that has seen them lose out to a dramatic Washington Commanders Hail Mary in addition to to a blocked Cairo Santos subject objective as time expired towards the Inexperienced Bay Packers.
The Bears are actually in search of their 18th head coach as they give the impression of being to maximise the abilities of No 1 decide quarterback Williams, who has proven huge enchancment below heart amid the group’s dropping streak.
