The Chicago Bears have fired head coach Matt Eberflus following their Thanksgiving Day defeat to the Detroit Lions on Thursday night time.Â
Eberflus and the Bears squandered the chance to take the Lions to time beyond regulation by neglecting to name a timeout whereas trailing 23-20 and in search of to get into discipline purpose vary within the remaining seconds of the sport.
It resulted in Chicago struggling their sixth straight defeat as they fell to 4-8 on the yr on the backside of the NFC North.
NFL Community’s Ian Rapoport confirmed the dismissal of Eberflus, who turns into the primary head coach within the franchise’s 100-plus yr historical past to be fired in the course of a season.
Thomas Brown will now take over as interim coach, having been promoted to offensive coordinator following the firing of Shane Waldron earlier within the marketing campaign.
The firing of Eberflus got here simply hours after he had outlined his confidence that he would nonetheless be head coach in Week 14 whereas chatting with reporters.
He departs with a report of 14-32 after being appointed as head coach in January 2022 following his time as Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator.
The Bears had threatened to upset the Tremendous Bowl-chasing Lions on Thursday after they got here from 16-0 after which 23-7 down after three quarters to maneuver inside three factors of Dan Campbell’s facet because of a Caleb Williams-inspired resurgence. However a horrendous instance of clock administration would value them and Eberflus as Williams took a sack with 32 seconds left earlier than 26 seconds got here off the clock till the Bears lastly ran their play, at which level it was too late.
“I like what we did there,” Eberflus stated after the sport. “Again, once it’s under seven (seconds), you’re going to call a timeout there, actually under 12 and then really you don’t have an option because it’s third (down) to fourth, you have to throw it into the end zone then.
“To me it is, I feel we dealt with it the precise manner, I do consider that you simply simply re-rack the play, get it in bounds and name timeout, and that is why we held it and did not work out the best way we wished it to.”
It continued a gruelling run of kind that has seen them lose out to a dramatic Washington Commanders Hail Mary in addition to to a blocked Cairo Santos discipline purpose as time expired in opposition to the Inexperienced Bay Packers.
The Bears at the moment are on the lookout for their 18th head coach as they appear to maximise the skills of No 1 choose quarterback Williams, who has proven huge enchancment below heart amid the crew’s shedding streak.
