Which Chicago Bears were duds vs the Lions in Week 17?

The Chicago Bears lost to the Detroit Lions in an embarrassing fashion after dominating this team for the last few years. They are 0-2 against their division rival this season and this loss was a big statement on how far the Lions have come and how far the Bears have fallen. Even though the Lions have by far been the better team this year, most Bears fans went into this matchup with the Bears having a good chance to win. Unfortunately, those fans, as well as the team, were humbled by a strong effort from the entire Lions team.

The Chicago Bears played with no effort against Detroit

I cannot blame the team for feeling so down and not motivated at this point. They have lost nine games in a row and even when they have played hard, they just cannot seem to win. While the tanking fans will be thankful for that, it is hard to watch this team struggle to close out games that they should or could win. At this point in the season, it seems like a “run out the clock” situation for the team, especially on offense.

Unfortunately, a lot of this goes to head coach Matt Eberflus. He has not been a failure as a first-year head coach, but there is not much to praise him for this year. He has gotten the players to buy into his system and they definitely play hard for him, but he has not been able to help them win. The adjustments made after the early season struggles were noticeable. Still, as the year has gone on Eberflus has not shown anything that would signify a franchise-changing head coach.

I am not going to call for him to be fired. I think most Bears fans would agree that he really did not have much of a chance this year regarding the depletion of talent on the roster. What we have seen from some key rookies and growth in the young core players gives a lot of hope for what could be going forward. Eberflus deserves a chance to work with an NFL roster with some real talent. If things go bad next year, he could be on the hot seat though.