The Chicago Bears have fired Head Coach Matt Eberflus.
The Bears announced they had fired Eberflus on Friday after the Bears’ failed comeback against the division rival Detroit Lions on Thursday afternoon. Eberflus posted a 14–32 record as head coach, and in 2024, led the team to a 4–8 record.
Confusion swirled early Friday as Eberflus held a press conference with the team, indicating he would be preparing for Chicago’s next game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Bears struggled out of the gate and were outscored by Detroit 16–0 in the first half. But Chicago rebounded and trailed 23–20 on their final possession. In the final minute of the game, quarterback Caleb Williams completed a pass to wide receiver D.J. Moore that went for a long gain; the play was called back due to a pass interference call against tight end Cole Kmet. On 4th and 14 from Chicago’s 46 yard line, Williams scrambled away from pressure and heaved another pass to Moore. This time, Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor was called for pass interference, netting Chicago a first down at the Lions’ 25-yard line.
Eberflus’s poor clock management began on the next series. On first down, Williams threw an incomplete pass. Even though the game clock stopped due to the incompletion, Eberflus called a timeout. On second down, offensive lineman Teven Jenkins was called for an illegal hands to the face penalty, backing them up to a 2nd and 20 on the Lions’ 35 yard line. Williams was sacked by Detroit defensive end Za’Darius Smith, leaving Chicago with a 3rd and 26 from the 41 yard line. The Bears still had a timeout and more than 20 seconds on the clock, giving them enough time to run another play to shorten the distance for a game-tying field goal attempt. But the team was forced to scramble to the line and struggled to line up correctly. The ball was snapped with just 6 seconds left. Williams heaved a last-ditch pass to wide receiver Rome Odunze, but the pass went over Odunze’s head and the clock ran out.
“So we’re at 36 seconds right there, and our hope was, because it was third going into fourth, that we would re-rack that play at 18 seconds, throw it in bounds, get it into the field goal range, and then call the timeout. And that’s where it was, and that was our decision-making process on that. Again, we were outside the field goal range, so we needed to get a few more yards in there, as close as we can get, and then we were going to call timeout. That’s why we held that last timeout at the end of the game.”
Chicago had a respectable start to the season, going 4–2 with wins over the Tennessee Titans, Los Angeles Rams, Carolina Panthers, and Jacksonville Jaguars. But the Bears then went on a six-game losing streak, including a dramatic last-second loss to the Washington Commanders, blowout losses to the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots, a blocked game-winning field goal against the Green Bay Packers, and an overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Eberflus will be replaced as interim head coach by Thomas Brown, who himself was already filling a replacement role. Brown joined the Bears in 2024 as the team’s passing game coordinator. He was promoted to offensive coordinator earlier this month after the Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
