FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Bears’ last trip to 1 Patriot Place for a regular-season game was the beginning of the end for Marc Trestman. Eight years ago Wednesday, his Bears lost 51-23 when Tom Brady threw five touchdown passes and Bears edge rusher Lamarr Houston tore his ACL thrusting his crotch to celebrate a sack down 25.
The Bears’ second-year head coach vowed to make changes during the bye week — and lost the next game to the rival Packers by 41 points. Trestman’s fate was sealed, though he was allowed to limp another two months toward a “Black Monday” firing. It was, and is, the Bears’ way.
Perhaps one day, Gillette Stadium will be known as the beginning of the beginning for coach Matt Eberflus.
A first-time head coach at any level, Eberflus rode a three-game losing streak into the Bears’ “mini-bye,” an open weekend afforded them by a Thursday night game followed by Monday night’s contest at the Patriots. Eberflus, like Trestman before him, vowed changes.
Unlike his predecessor, he followed through. The Bears’ 33-14 win against the Patriots was one of their most unexpected in years and a product of Eberflus’ ability to regroup strategically and emotionally.
For a first-time head coach, that’s an encouraging early sign.
“He’s incredible,” general manager Ryan Poles said before the game. “His ability to self-assess over this last week and get the staff together and keep the team jelled together [was great].
“That’s what you worry about with any team. When you lose, you don’t want things to fester. And this team is tighter than it’s ever been, believing in each other and finding ways to win games moving forward.”
There won’t too be many of those — the Bears are rebuilding — but the win proved Eberflus can get off the mat.
His lone “mini-bye” personnel change was rendered moot in less than a quarter when center Lucas Patrick — who had moved from left guard to become the starter — hurt his toe. Sam Mustipher, the starting center the first six games, took his place.
“It’s a young team, but it’s a hungry team,” Mustipher said. “I think guys were able to be honest with themselves over these few days off. Guys weren’t screwing around. They were figuring out ways to get better so we can right the ship. When you have leadership like coach Flus and the rest of the staff, the message was consistent. It was, ‘We gotta get better.’”
Said running back David Montgomery: “We just took advantage of the time we had off. It wasn’t, like, chill.”
Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy played to quarterback Justin Fields’ strengths, moving the pocket with a personal protector-blocker and even calling designed runs for his fleet-footed quarterback
Alan Williams’ defense so baffled quarterback Mac Jones that the Patriots faithful chanted the name of backup Bailey Zappe within minutes. Early in the second quarter, they got their wish — Bill Belichick, playing for the right to pass Bears founder George Halas with 325 career wins, benched Jones in his return from a three-week ankle injury. Eberflus said he suspected both would play.
“We were badly outcoached, outplayed,” Belichick said. “Just didn’t do anything well enough in the game to have a chance to win or deserve to win.”
Eberflus and his staff spent the days after an embarrassing loss to the Commanders in self-reflection. Position coaches wrote reports on each player. Getsy, Williams and special-teams coordinator Richard Hightower self-evaluated their schemes, detailing their strengths, weaknesses and trends.
Eberflus demurred when asked what the fixes portend for the future, saying after the game that it was “an effect of stacking good practices together.” The staff harped on technique, adding extra individual drills and believing that’s what was missing in the Bears’ well-documented October near-misses.
“It’s detail in their work,” Poles said. “Just being very specific, being exactly where you’re supposed to be. Your technique — I know [Eberflus] is big on technique. That’s one thing they hammered this week. I believe in that, too, just from my time playing: If you can dial in on technique, all the other little stuff comes after that.”
