Chicago Bears legend calls out Matt Eberflus after team's struggling start

No player has appeared in more games in the history of the Chicago Bears than Patrick Mannelly. The sixteen-year veteran has seen a lot of bad offenses during his time on the field, and he's seen plenty more in his role on 670 The Score's Bears postgame show. Mannelly was a recent guest on Bill Zimmerman's Bear Banter podcast on our 2nd City Gridiron channel, and as always, he brought the heat.

They discussed Chicago's offense being on the field for over 80 snaps and having so little to show for it.

“That's a long film session for the guys on Monday morning," Mannelly told Bill, "but yeah, they only scored 16 points. That, to me, just tells you that there are problems everywhere."

"Like you just mentioned, Shane Waldron is not doing a great job. The goal line is not doing a great job. You know, rookie quarterback is rearing its head. There's some great plays, there's some bad plays, there's some good plays. It's just all across the board. And just to me, 84 plays and 16 points, that's not good enough.”

They also talked about the troubles in the running game and if the scheme could be the main culprit.

“Yeah, we talked about this on the postgame show yesterday on 670 The Score with Olin that, you know, Chris Morgan is the run game coordinator. He was not brought in, he was retained here, right? So, Shane Waldron, that's not his guy. Are they on the same page?"

"We're not just talking about players being on the same page, are the coaches on the same page? So when you're putting together the run scheme during the week, during the offseason, to me, maybe that's part of the problem, that they're not on the same page.”

Matt Eberflus remains plagued with inconsistent coaching decisions

Head coach Matt Eberflus' indecisiveness after the Caleb Williams to Rome Odunze touchdown on whether or not they should go for two drew Mannelly's ire.

“That was egregious. That was flat ridiculous,” Mannelly said. “I’ve been on those sidelines before where the special teams coach will make it clear. I mean, they sent Santos out there. So not only is the blame on Eberflus, he’s the head coach but the special teams coach has to know that as well. They have the clicker to communicate, right? ‘Hey, are we going for two?’ That should have been communicated while they were driving down the field. That should have been known before... That was inexcusable. A high school coach would know to do that.”

Bill and Patrick also spent time on Williams and Odunze, Cole Kmet's emergence, the offensive line, the defense and the line's surprising start, and so much more.

You can listen to the full podcast here:

Billl's interview with Mannelly can also be seen at our YouTube channel here.

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