Matt Eberflus sparked a huge controversy in the game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions. With 32 seconds left, trying to tie the score being down 23-20, Caleb Williams was sacked on second down with only one timeout left.
Although the logical decision was to stop the clock right there and then call another play to make the field goal attempt shorter, Eberflus just let everything unfold.
After the sack, Williams took a lot of time to call the next play and, following that chaotic sequence, the game ended. As a consequence, the future of Eberflus in the NFL was absolutely in jeopardy.
Who is Chicago Bears’ new coach?
The new head coach of the Chicago Bears is Thomas Brown after Matt Eberflus was officially fired by the team. Brown was the offensive coordinator and now takes over to finish the season as interim.
Eberflus was already under huge scrutiny after the controversial decision, but, he added a lot of fuel with his message following the loss at Detroit. “We’re at 36 seconds right there and our hope was, because it was third down going into fourth down, that we would rerack that play at 18 seconds, throw it inbounds, get it in field goal range and then call a timeout.”
What happened with Matt Eberflus and Bears?
Matt Eberflus explained why he never considered to call timeout after Caleb Williams was sacked by the Lions. Surprisingly, he seemed convinced that was the right move and, in the end, it cost him the job.
“I like what we did there. 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 to fourth down, you have to throw it into the end zone then. I think we handled it the right way. I do believe that you just rerack the play, get it in bounds and call timeout. That’s why we held it and didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”