Bears' decision to move on from head coach Matt Eberflus is already leading to a domino effect the team wasn't expecting
The energy was miles different this week for the Chicago Bears after moving on from former head coach Matt Eberflus, but the play on the field somehow got even worse.Against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 14, it only took one game to see the domino effect the decision to fire Eberflus caused for the […]
The energy was miles different this week for the Chicago Bears after moving on from former head coach Matt Eberflus, but the play on the field somehow got even worse.
Against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 14, it only took one game to see the domino effect the decision to fire Eberflus caused for the rest of the team.
Defensively, the Bears were flat out embarrassed against Kyle Shanahan's offense with Eric Washington taking over as the defensive play-caller. Offensively, the unit took major strides backwards with Thomas Brown taking over as head coach and moving from the booth to the sidelines.
Don't get me wrong, the decision to move on from Eberflus was the right choice and everyone made sure to make that known over the last week. But, I don't think the team was fully prepared for what making that decision would cause.
It wasn't the start to the Thomas Brown era many fans were hoping to see against the 49ers and it was an even worse look for Brown considering he's under a heavy microscope over the course of the final month of the season.
"We got out butts kicked, that's the only way to say it," Brown said after the game. "We got to do a better job of putting a better gameplan on both sides of the ball."
Brown's close work with quarterback Caleb Williams and Bears' the offense from Weeks 11-13 looked really promising. But, this week, Brown's attention was forced to turn to the entire team, leading to one of the worst offensive starts we've seen in over two decades. The Bears had a total of 4 offensive yards in the first-half, the fewest in any first-half since at least 2000, per CBS.
"We got to do a better job of finding ways to start the game faster, particularly on the offensive side of the ball," Brown added. "I think we do a decent job at halftime making adjustments but [we need to] get the ball rolling at the beginning of some games."
On defense, the blame goes squarely on defensive coordinator Eric Washington. Sunday's game was the first regular game since 2018 in which Washington was the primary defensive play-caller, although he did call the defense in the preseason, and the unit fell flat on their back.
Leading up to the game, Washington noted he wanted his unit to play with assertiveness and establish their identity. Allowing over 450 yards and 9 plays of 20+ yards isn't the best start to creating that mindset.
It's clear that one decision wasn't going to be the magic wish that would get this team back on track and it's clear the issues are more than what's going on on Sundays.
Keenan Allen addresses future in Chicago with one-year contract starting to dwindle away
We now know how he feels.
