Matt Eberflus is out as Bears coach only hours after a press conference explaining what happened in Friday's game. Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

Report: Bears Fire Coach Matt Eberflus After Thanksgiving Disaster

Originally posted on Chicago Bears on SI
By Gene Chamberlain | Last updated Nov 29, 2024 12:36 PM ET

The Chicago Bears have done something they never did before in 105 NFL seasons and fired their head coach during a season.

Matt Eberflus has been fired, according to sources, and the action by management came only a few hours after he met with the press to explain what happened in Thursday's loss.

The team announced the decision on Friday morning after a debacle at the end of Thursday's Thanksgiving Day loss to the Detroit Lions. The Bears took a timeout home with them in the 23-20 loss, and had the ball at the Lions' 41-yard line on third down when the clock expired.

Quarterback Caleb Williams took a sack on the previous down and lost 6 yards to push the Bears out of field goal range, or just to the end of it, and no timeout was forthcoming.

The Bears nearly overcame a 16-0 halftime deficit and were in position to actually score the winning points when Williams missed on a short pass to Keenan Allen that could have reached the end zone. A 10-yard penalty for Teven Jenkins when he knocked the helmet off of a Lions defender ensued and moved the ball from the 25 to the 35 but still in field goal range.

Finally the Bears do the correct thing and fire Matt Eberflus. But, how do u let him meet the media this morning and say he is planning on coaching the San Francisco game? That’s just insane.
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) November 29, 2024

Eberflus finished with a 14-32 record and a 3-19 record in road games. The Bears have gone without a road win since Nov. 27, 2023 and appeared set to end this streak. He had a 5-19 record in one-score games.

Only Abe Gibron (.274, 11-30-1, 1972-74) and John Fox (.292, 14-34, 2015-17) had worse winning percentages than Eberflus (.304).

The losing hit a peak on Thursday to end a series of tight defeats.

Today is a bigger disaster for the Bears than yesterday.
— Adam Rank (@adamrank) November 29, 2024

The Bears lost on a Hail Mary pass to Washington on Oct. 27, then on a game-ending blocked field goal to Green Bay three games ago. They lost in overtime to the Vikings in a game when they had another field goal blocked, after overcoming an 11-point deficit to tie in the final 30 seconds. Then they lost Thursday by squandering the chance to end Detroit's nine-game winning streak.

The Bears have lost six straight, the second longest losing streak under Eberflus. They lost 14 straight in 2022-23 under Eberflus, who was hired by GM Ryan Poles.

Poles had just been hired in 2022 when he was given three candidates to choose from by team board chairman George McCaskey, former team president Ted Phillips and his advisor on the hiring process, former NFL executive Bill Polian. The other candidates were former Lions and Colts coach Jim Caldwell and current Commanders coach Dan Quinn.

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This article first appeared on Chicago Bears on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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