Matt Eberflus is lucky. He’s lucky that Caleb Williams walked off the field after playing the full game and getting sacked six times against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. He’s lucky the rookie quarterback — the future of the team — wasn’t seriously injured as the final seconds of an awful game for the Chicago Bears ticked off the clock.
“I landed wrong and just kind of tweaked it,” Williams said after the 29-9 loss. “And then the last play, the dude grabbed my ankle and gator-rolled. I tried to get off it because when you stay on it, that’s when bad stuff starts to happen and breaks and all of that. I tried to just let my body go so I could fall and roll with him.”
He said he’s OK, though.
“You fight to end the game if you’re in the game,” Williams said.
But he shouldn’t have been in the game. Williams took the field with 2:15 remaining, but there was no comeback to lead. It was a bad situation for Williams to be in. The Cardinals attacked and he got hit. A defender grabbed his ankle and rolled.
“The starters were left in the game because we’re going to fight to the end,” Eberflus said Monday. “Those guys did a nice job with that on defense. Offense, we’re working operation. … It’s going to come down to that and where that is in terms of that, so it’s important that we have that mentality going forward.”
This is where this week’s five takeaways column begins.
1. Sending out Caleb Williams late in the fourth quarter behind an offensive line of backups was the wrong time to send a message.
But that’s apparently what Eberflus did. This wasn’t a real two-minute situation for Williams. It was garbage time in a 20-point loss.
No one would have blamed (or criticized) Eberflus for removing Williams. Instead, we’re left wondering if general manager Ryan Poles is on board with such decisions.
“Yeah, I’m not going to get into private conversations with Ryan in terms of exactly what was said or not said,” Eberflus said Monday. “We’re always on board for getting better. And we’re always on board with competing to the very end. I’ll tell you that.”
Williams, though, can’t compete in the future or develop if he’s hurt. He can’t escape pressure, dodge would-be tacklers and make the plays that you drafted him to make if his ankle is ailing.
So Eberflus is lucky. He’s lucky like John Fox was when he sent Mitch Trubisky back in for meaningless snaps late in a preseason game against the Cleveland Browns years ago. Eberflus is lucky it was just another late-game decision to question instead of having an injured quarterback to discuss.
2. No one’s seat is hotter at Halas Hall right now than offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s.
The Bears offense ranks 30th in passing, 25th in rushing, 19th in scoring and 29th in third-down percentage. But Waldron’s not going anywhere. Eberflus confirmed that on Monday.
“No, we’re looking to find answers, and that’s where we’re at collectively as a group, offense and defense,” he said. “And we’ll go through that process here today, tomorrow and implement that plan on Wednesday.”
here’s all of the sacks from yesterday (heads up there’s quite a few) pic.twitter.com/CHMcyN8mFY
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) November 4, 2024
Eberflus then went a step further. He described his confidence as “high” in Waldron, though he didn’t really detail where his confidence is rooted.
“We’re sitting at 4-4,” Eberflus said. “Right now that’s where we are and it’s important that we focus on this week. That’s all we can control and doing a better job of putting our guys in position as coaches to be successful and that’s ultimately my job and the coordinator’s job secondly. So it’s important that we do a great job of that with the position coaches, partnering up with players and putting those guys in position to succeed.”
3. If Matt Eberflus is allowed to fire Shane Waldron during the season, it would be an indictment of himself and would likely become another reason for his own removal.
The Oakland Raiders fired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy on Monday. It’s a bad look for the Raiders and the Bears. Eberflus fired Getsy after two years of calling plays for former quarterback Justin Fields.
Waldron’s pairing with Williams was supposed to be different. But it’s not working like the Bears hoped it would or many said it would (including myself, unfortunately). The Commanders’ decision to pair Jayden Daniels with Kliff Kingsbury is working, though. Eberflus, of course, interviewed Kingsbury.
Eberflus’ predecessors had different options as their play caller. Matt Nagy removed himself as the Bears’ play caller for Mitch Trubisky, while Marc Trestman once benched Jay Cutler in favor of Jimmy Clausen. Desperate times produce desperate decisions, and Eberflus’ Bears aren’t quite there yet.
4. The Bears’ messaging could remain a storyline this week with players now mentioning the media’s coverage.
In the locker room after the Bears’ loss to the Cardinals, cornerbacks Tyrique Stevenson and Jaylon Johnson both mentioned the media’s role in covering the fallout of the Hail Mary loss against the Washington Commanders.
“At the end of the day, the media made it, of course, way bigger and blew it up,” Johnson said. “It’s something of course we got to finish but that I (didn’t) carry into this week. This week was a completely different week.”
The problem was that Williams later said something different in his news conference. He thought the team didn’t get over it quickly enough in preparation for the Arizona game.
If you include everything that was said last week by Bears players and then how Eberflus asked them to keep certain comments in-house, it’s apparent the Bears have a locker room that’s feeling different ways about some things.
The onus is on Eberflus to get everyone on the same page.
“It’s important to move on every single week,” Eberflus said. “It’s important that we abide by the 24-hour rule and we move on, and this week is no different. Win or lose, you’ve got to move on to the next week and you’ve got to find answers for improvement every single week. It’s never going to be perfect, even when you win by 20 or win by a couple or lose like we did (against the Cardinals). You have to find answers and move forward to the next week. That’s the way this league is. We’ve got to do a good job with that this week for sure.”
5. The scrutiny of the Bears’ failures this season will include general manager Ryan Poles’ decision-making and roster construction, but there is time for that later.
The Bears are banged up and seemingly getting worse, losing nose tackle Andrew Billings (chest) and right tackle Darnell Wright (knee) to injuries on Sunday. Injuries ruin the best plans. They change seasons and then the evaluations that come with them. Some of the Bears’ best players acquired by Poles weren’t on the field against the Cardinals.
Poles, though, has remarked in the past that he felt it was odd that Eberflus was held to his record — which is now 14-28 in 2 1/2 seasons — while he seemed to get a free pass. That will change this season.
Nine games remain, which is plenty of time for things to improve — or get worse. Six games against the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings loom on the schedule. The Bears will find out soon enough how far they’re really behind in competing for the division.
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
