Another week, another questionable response from Matt Eberflus
The Bears took another loss in week 9 vs the Saints. With a final score of 17-24, the Bears drop to 2-7.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus continues his legendary losing record with the Bears. He also continues to provide comically confusing and contradictory statements to the press.
Bears beat reporter Nicholas Moreano was at the Bears press conference Monday and he personally asked the head coach a question.
I asked Matt Eberflus why Tyson Bagent was asked to play more from the pocket in the second half against the Saints.
Here is Eberflus' response:
“You know, it’s, again, about the design of it, you know. It wasn’t a reason for that going inside, outside the pocket. We were doing… pic.twitter.com/pSHfdMb5ea
— Nicholas Moreano (@NicholasMoreano) November 6, 2023
Matt Eberflus talks about imaginary success
The real issues with his statement come from two places.
One, Eberflus talked about “execution” and how they have to be better, which is true. The problem comes at the end of the third sentence.
“The execution piece of it. Got to do a better job, and protecting the football is number one. And when you do that and we’ve done that, we’ve had success as a football team.
He talks about success as a football team. What success? The Bears have a win-loss record of 2-7.
On a points-per-game basis the Bears offense ranks 18th in the NFL. with 20.9 points per game. Which isn’t terrible. Regardless of that stat, the Bears are 2-7.
The New York Giants are also 2-7 on the season. The Giants offense is dead last in the NFL with a horrendous 11.2 points-per-game.
Having the same amount of wins as a team scoring 11 points a game is not success.
According to Eberflus execution is the problem, not the scheme
“You know, it’s, again, about the design of it, you know. It wasn’t a reason for that going inside, outside the pocket. We were doing what we thought was going to win the football game for us. Again, that’s where it is. That’s where it is. Again, some of those things in the fourth quarter were really about us, just execution.”
Eberflus is not entirely wrong about the execution. The execution could absolutely be better. Although, his comment does solidify a common theme of this season for the Bears, strange scheme changing decisions.
The Bears played solidly in the first half of Sunday’s game versus New Orleans. At the end of the first half, the game was tied 14-14. The Bears had 230 yards of offense in the first half.
The two main issues were an interception thrown by Bagent, and a missed field goal. Those two plays are the execution woes Eberflus is talking about. In the second half though, stats say there was a bigger issue than execution of the gameplan.
The second half resulted in 7 Bears possessions that accumulated a total of 88 yards. The difference between the first and second half of the game is very telling.
The Bears found something that was working relatively well in the first half. Then completely abandoned that strategy in the second half.
Instead of taking accountability for having a bad gameplan, Eberflus decided to pin the loss on poor execution on behalf of the players.
Did he explicitly blame the players? No he did not. Claiming execution is the issue, is pointing the finger at the players. Who are directly responsible for executing plays.
Matt Eberflus’ answer to Moreano’s question says Eberflus found nothing wrong with the gameplan and strategy to change the offensive approach. Instead the issue was with the players inability to execute his plan.
What Matt Eberflus has taught us through week 9
Matt Eberflus will lead the Bears to one place, straight to the top of the draft. Which is something to be positive about. There is a lot of talent in the 2024 draft class.
Eberflus is proving almost on a weekly basis at this point, that he is not cut out for an NFL head coaching job.
Every week Matt Eberflus has a comment that baffles fans and contradicts what is actually happening on the field.
He also doesn’t even know what positions his players actually play. In week 6, Eberflus claimed Cody Whitehair was changing positions to center and that is why he struggled snapping the ball. Whitehair has played a majority of his NFL career at center. Comments like this prove that he does not have what it takes to lead an NFL franchise into a successful future.
Matt Eberflus has 8 games left in the 2023 season to prove that he isn’t part of the problem. If he can’t the Bears will be looking for a new head coach for the 2024 season.
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