Bears coach Matt Eberflus on Lions fiasco: ‘I like what we did there’

You won’t believe what Bears coach Matt Eberflus said about Chicago’s late-game meltdown against the Lions.

There are a lot of things the Detroit Lions can be thankful for this Thanksgiving. They’re 11-1 on the season and sit atop the NFL with a chance to clinch a playoff spot this weekend. They’ve tied a franchise record (set in 1934) with 10 straight wins. They’re 3-0 when facing NFC North teams and they just won for the first time on Thanksgiving Day since 2016.

But the thing they are maybe the most thankful for at this moment is the Chicago Bears botching their end-of-game play calling and handing the Lions a win.

The Lions dominated the first half of this game. Detroit only carried a 16-0 lead thanks to the Bears’ defense holding the Lions to three field goals in the red zone and forcing a turnover inside their own 5-yard line. When the second half started, the Bears offense started to find their groove, while the Lions offense was quickly coming up empty as they got away from their bread-and-butter plays. As a result, the Bears gained possession of the ball with 3 minutes and 31 seconds left in the game, and were a field goal away from evening the game up at 23 points.

The Bears would move forward, then take a sack (Al-Quadin Muhammad). They would move forward again, then take a penalty. On fourth down at mid-field, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams heaved a desperation ball downfield that was nowhere close to anyone, yet the Lions were flagged for pass interference, moving the ball to the Lions’ 25-yard line with 46 seconds left on the clock.

A short pass and another Bears penalty later and the Bears had second-and-20 from the Lions’ 35… and that’s when the chaos ensued.

Za’Darius Smith perfectly timed the snap, came free off the edge, and sacked Williams for a 6-yard loss.

As Smith was celebrating, Williams was trying to bring his offense back to the line of scrimmage for the next play. It’s now third-and-26 from the Lions’ 41-yard line and a running clock, rolling down from 36 seconds.

With a timeout in his back pocket, Bears coach Matt Eberflus appeared to be arguing with the referee instead of paying attention to an expiring clock and failed to call said timeout. Williams, looking like the rookie that he is, wasn’t in much of a rush to get things moving, and by the time the Bears lined up, there were just 12 seconds remaining on the clock.

Instead of snapping the ball and running a play that could take six or seven seconds—then maybe attempting a game-tying field goal—Williams casually made his adjustments at the line and didn’t even snap the ball until just five seconds were remaining on the clock.

Williams’ pass fell incomplete as time expired, and they wasted their opportunity to try and tie the game.

After an absolute disaster of a finish, Eberflus explained the team’s strategy in his post-game presser, while managing to skirt around who to blame and why alternate decisions weren’t considered.

“We’re there at second-and-20,” Eberflus said. “We take the sack there and we’re at 36 seconds (remaining). Our hope was—because it was third (down) going into fourth—that we would rack that play at 18 seconds, throw it into field goal range and call a timeout. That’s where it was and that was our decision-making process in that moment. We were outside our field goal range and we needed to get a few more yards, as close as we can get, then we were going to call a timeout. That’s why we held that timeout.”

When the clock got under 10 seconds, why didn’t you call a timeout?

“We liked the play, that we had, and we were hoping he would call it—Um, get the ball snapped—and then we could call time out there,” Eberflus continued.

In retrospect, how should you have handled the final sequence?

“I like what we did there,” Eberflus said. “Once it’s under seven seconds, if you’re going to call a timeout—really under 12—then you don’t have an option. Because it’s third to fourth and you’ve gotta throw it in the end zone then. To me, I think we handled it the right way, we racked the play, get it in bounds, call a timeout—that’s why we held it—but it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”

There’s 32 seconds left when Caleb is sacked. How do you only come away with one play?

“Just like I said,” Eberflus reiterated.

So why wasn’t the ball snapped at 18 seconds?

“We just gotta do a better job together. Just got to do a better job to get together and re-rack that play. Get it off and call a time-out.”

So is this on the players for not getting it snapped?

“No. It’s a situation where you got to get the play in, snap the ball, and get (the play) off, and then call a time-out […] we were all on the same page, just have to do it better,” Eberflus explained.

Well, there you go. That explains everything.