Chicago Bears’ fans had little to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day as a series of late-game blunders led to yet another stupefying loss.
But in a not-so-surprising twist, Christmas has come early for some Bears fans who can now knock at least one item off their wish lists — head coach Matt Eberflus is out.
In what would be his final press conference Friday morning, Eberflus maintained he would still be behind the bench come Sunday.
“I’m confident that I’ll be working [next week when we play] San Francisco…” the head coach said just a few hours before he was shown the door.
Eberflus revealed he met with both Chicago’s president and general manager following Sunday’s game as he does every week. He also said there were plans for the three of them to talk again later in the day.
The talk of job security — or lack thereof — comes with the sting of Thursday’s 23-20 loss in Detroit still fresh.
“The operation wasn’t fast enough,” Eberflus said of his Bears’ highly scrutinized final drive.
It’s an astute observation, albeit one that any of the 65,000-plus at Ford Field could’ve surmised.
With less than three minutes on the clock and his Bears down by three, Williams and the Chicago offense drove from their own one-yard line all the way down field and into Lions territory.
What happened thereafter — the penalties, the sacks, the failure to call the timeout — has been recounted many a time. In Chicago, bemoaningly; in Detroit, beamingly; and even in The Post, expectantly. It was a meltdown of epic proportions, even by Bears’ standards.
Eberflus was torched by Jim Nantz and Tony Romo in the CBS booth. Calls for the coach’s dismissal rained in harder than at any point thus far in the Bears’ 4-8 campaign.
The man of the hour addressed the end-of-game debacle during his media availability Friday morning, noting that he had rewatched the final drive with interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown earlier in the day.
“I thought the operation was good, just the penalties put us behind the sticks,” Eberflus said. “We were in scoring position, [we] really could’ve owned the game there.”
The coaching staff decided not to call a timeout at a critical juncture towards the end of that final drive. Eberflus defended his decision not to stop the clock, stating the plan was to burn the last timeout ahead of a final-second field goal attempt.
But because there was no timeout, there was no attempt.
“All these decisions are my decisions,” Eberflus said. “I take full accountability for them and we didn’t get it done. It’s unfortunate for the players, the fans.”
The suffering may not be over for the Chicago faithful, but it is for Eberflus.
