If Bears coach Matt Eberflus’ future truly is still being determined and every game factors into the equation of whether the team will keep him, he met all the criteria in a 37-17 win over the Falcons on Sunday.
From the offense thriving with a balanced attack to the defense hounding the Falcons at every turn, he got everything he needed as he tries to make his case to stay. And while Eberflus avoided directly answering whether he knows if the Bears are bringing him back, he has sounded increasingly confident lately.
“I’m focusing on right here, right now,” he said Sunday. “We’ll have all those conversations at the end with everybody that’s involved. Certainly excited to have those conversations.”
It’d be strange to be “excited” about those meetings if he thought they might go badly.
Eberflus certainly couldn’t have been eager to talk about that two months ago, but the Bears have won 5 of 7 and mostly avoided the embarrassments that plagued them early.
But as they lit victory cigars in the locker room — they really did that after beating the Falcons — they should be careful to recognize that while this is progress, they’re still sitting at 7-9 and near certain to miss the playoffs.
“We’re playing some good football,” he said. “It’s not great. It’s not where it needs to be. But it’s good football. It’s solid. It’s winning football. We’ve just got to keep doing that.”
That’s a very accurate assessment of where the Bears stand. And one of the biggest decisions general manager Ryan Poles must make this offseason is whether Eberflus can get them to greatness.
The victory seemingly hit every item his bosses —Poles and president Kevin Warren — would have on their checklist.
Quarterback Justin Fields played one of his best games, throwing for 268 yards and running for 45, posting a 99.5 passer rating and producing two touchdowns against the NFL’s sixth-ranked defense. The defense got four takeaways. The Bears went up 21-7 early and stayed ahead by double digits from there.
Those are weighty entries on the positive side of the ledger for Eberflus.
And the outlook is brighter for the team than it’s been since it came off the 2018 division title. Those high hopes plummeted fast, and it’s been grueling since.
Until now.
Core young players like cornerback Jaylon Johnson and tight end Cole Kmet have known only misery with the Bears, but they see a young roster with a future. And Poles is loaded with resources — including the No. 1 overall pick — to enhance it.
“Maybe a little much with the cigar smoke, just being honest, but it’s good,” Kmet said with a smile. “The results are showing up. You can see where this is going. We’ve got some really good pieces and a really good team coming together, and I couldn’t have said that in the past.”
Johnson said there’s some hollowness in knowing the Bears underachieved this season, but added that he sees them getting “closer and closer” to being a playoff team.
He’s right on both fronts. If the Bears had looked like this all the season, there likely wouldn’t be much debate about Eberflus’ future. Even the final result, whether they end up finishing 7-10 or 8-9, is acceptable progress coming off a three-win season in the demolition phase of the rebuild.
The problem for Eberflus is that he oversaw so much self-created turbulence along the way. He mentioned “adversity” twice Sunday, but that adversity didn’t hit like some unavoidable storm. It came from inside their building with alarming departures by assistant coaches, fourth-quarter collapses and various other snafus.
If the Bears had reached this point in a normal way, steadily and persistently proving they were progressing, Eberflus would be fine. But they got here just barely. And it’ll be the same for Eberflus if he keeps his job: just barely.
