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Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus on his job status: 'It's been normal operation'

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Published  November 29, 2024 9:33am CST
Bears
FOX 32 Chicago

Chicago Bears' Matt Eberflus explains the end-of-game sequence

Bears head coach Matt Eberflus explains why he held onto a timeout at the end of Thursday's 23-20 loss to Detroit.

In an eerie day-after media availability, Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus addressed his job security after a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions on Friday.

Eberflus, who met with the media for nine minutes virtually over zoom, was asked if he expects to be the head coach of the Chicago Bears next week.

Eberflus said he's confident he will be, and had not heard otherwise.

"I'm confident I'll be working on to San Francisco," Eberflus said. "It's been normal operation."

Eberflus said he had his usual postgame debrief with Bears CEO Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles on Thursday. He also said he will meet with them again on Friday.

Although Eberflus said it's been a normal operation, the end of Thursday's game and the hours following it were anything but normal.

With 36 seconds remaining and sitting just outside of field goal range, Eberflus elected to pocket his final timeout as time ticked from 36 seconds to six remaining.

Thursday, Eberflus explained the idea was to get a third-down play and set up a game-tying field goal. On Friday, he said that was one of two options: let the clock run to 15 seconds, snap the ball and get in range for Cairo Santos or call time out, run a play and hurry the field goal unit on the field for a tying attempt.

Instead, the Bears struggled to get the play call in, line up and get the ball snapped at that 15 second mark. Caleb Williams said after the game Thursday he changed the play at the last second when he realized that was going to be the final play of the game.

Eberflus could have taken a timeout when the Bears reached the 15-second mark and were not lined up. Hindsight, Eberflus said, is always 20/20.

"All these decisions are my decision," Eberflus said. "I take accountability for them."

That set up Friday's virtual media availability, where the Bears didn't send out any information for the 9 a.m. availability until 9:02 a.m. which only led to more speculation about Eberflus' job security.

Eberflus spoke, and it looks like he'll be in place when the Bears travel to take on the San Francisco 49ers next Sunday.  

Eberflus said the Bears players have the weekend off, so the end-of-game won’t be addressed until Monday.