None of the letters in Bears coach Matt Eberflus’ H.I.T.S. system stands for giving straightforward answers to the public.
As his team sat 0-3 with the NFL’s worst point differential after a 41-10 thrashing at hands of the Chiefs, Eberflus didn’t clear much up Monday. He was vague when it came to the defense struggling and quarterback Justin Fields faltering and presented a scenario in which everything is mostly going the way it should behind the scenes, even though every game brings a fresh reckoning that reveals the opposite.
After a debut season in which everyone gritted their teeth, knowing the Bears would be terrible by design, Eberflus now faces very real stakes and has entered the territory nearly every one of the team’s coaches trudged before him: He is grasping for palatable explanations for why things aren’t working while promising the breakthrough is right around the corner.
‘‘We’re real close,’’ he said. ‘‘I know a lot of people say it’s a far way away; I don’t believe that.’’
Nobody outside Halas Hall sees what he’s seeing, and non-answers will get increasingly irritating if his 3-17 record keeps sliding.
Eberflus talked about the Bears needing ‘‘the stamina to push through obstacles and push through adversity’’ and said there are ‘‘countless examples of that in the history of the NFL.’’ While it’s true that great teams often hit rough patches, what history actually says is that an 0-3 team is pretty much buried. In the last three decades, 98% of teams that lost their first three games missed the playoffs.
Eberflus reached for examples of resurgence from his career, including a slow start when he was the defensive coordinator at Missouri in the early 2000s. He also brought up the 2018 Colts, which undermined his point rather than underscoring it.
Yes, when he was their defensive coordinator that season, the Colts started 1-5 before finishing 9-1 and winning a playoff game. But three of those early losses were by one score, and the Colts had Andrew Luck at quarterback putting up arguably the best season of his career.
‘‘Everybody was looking at us like, ‘Not a very good team,’ right?’’ Eberflus said. ‘‘You just keep doing right over and over again, one play at a time, then you run off nine in a row or whatever that might be. This team is different, but we’ll see where it is.’’
This team is very different. The Bears have been outscored by 59 points in their first three games. Fields was ranked 32nd in passer rating out of 34 qualifying quarterbacks through Sunday and managed only 99 yards passing against the Chiefs.
Eberflus’ emphasis to players after examining the film from the loss to the Chiefs was, ‘‘How can we focus and get the details right at every position?’’
That’s a problem. While the Bears plunged through losses last season, Eberflus maintained much was being accomplished by establishing ‘‘championship habits’’ and implementing H.I.T.S. The ‘‘S’’ stands for smart, as in playing smart. Being focused and detail-oriented surely falls into that category.
So why has that been lacking in the first three games of Year 2?
Eberflus never answered that. He veered to ‘‘we need to do better’’ and went into a long answer about being tough-minded and sticking together.
After multiple follow-ups, he said: ‘‘We always focus on detail. . . . I’m just re-emphasizing so we get improvement. You focus on things you need to get improvement on, and that’s what we need to get improvement on at this time.’’
The Bears must improve across the board.
That circles back to the flaw in Eberflus’ comparison between them and the 2018 Colts. The Colts had undeniable bright spots during their 1-5 start. Luck averaged almost 300 yards passing per game, and Shaq Leonard was well on his way to earning an All-Pro selection as a rookie.
That team had undeniable promise, whereas the Bears haven’t shown any yet.
