The Chicago Bears' Thanksgiving Day loss to the Detroit Lions, which featured poor clock management on the part of Bears coach Matt Eberflus, was thought to be the final nail in the coffin of his tenure pacing the sideline in Chicago. And it was indeed, as the Bears fired Eberflus on Friday, just hours after he had expressed confidence in his job status.
But, perhaps even more damning than the result of the game were the Bears players' reactions to the result of the game. According to sourced reporting from The Athletic's Dianna Russini and Adam Jahns, Eberflus, undoubtedly as a form of damage control after the embarrassing loss, preached a message of unity in the postgame locker room.
However the Bears players, especially Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson, weren't buying it, according to Russini and Jahns's report. Johnson reportedly was "going off" on Eberflus, and was joined by other Bears players who wanted to know why the coach hadn't used the team's final timeout.
Trailing by three points with 33 seconds remaining in the game, the Bears dropped back to pass from the Lions' 41-yard line, but quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked, pushing the team out of field goal range. But, rather than using the team's final timeout to stop the clock, the Bears inexplicably let the clock run all the way down until there were roughly seven seconds remaining. They then attempted a deep pass, which fell incomplete and sealed their fate.
In a postgame locker room scene that Russini and Jahns reported to be "ugly," Bears players were more than fed up with Eberflus.
"We felt as players it’s been too many instances where we fought our way back into games to lose because of bad time management and decision-making," an unnamed player told The Athletic.
Ultimately, Bears ownership shared the same sentiment, as they fired a coach mid-season for the first time in the franchise's 104-year history. Interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, who replaced former play-caller Shane Waldron, was appointed as the team's interim head coach.
Brown will pace the sidelines for the Bears (4–8) when they take on the San Francisco 49ers (5–6) in Week 14.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bears Players Confronted Matt Eberflus About Ending of Brutal Loss vs. Lions.
