3 strikes against Matt Eberflus sticking as Chicago Bears head coach

2. The Chicago Bears are playing sloppy football

The Bears are not buttoned up organizationally, and they are embarrassing themselves nationally. They are also playing an ugly brand of football. The Bears currently have 52 penalties, which ranks 8th worst in the NFL. Last year, they ranked 30th with 80. For perspective, they have gone from 4.7 penalties per game in 2022 to 6.5 penalties per game in 2023. That is nearly two more penalties per game. You are either coaching it or letting it happen.

The Bears have also been poor when it comes to missed tackles. This year, they are averaging 9.8 missed tackles per game, which is up from 8.5 last season. They are missing 1.3 more tackles per week. One of the things that fans and reporters pointed to last year was the effort, the tackling, and the discipline as reasons that Eberflus was having success despite the wins.

The thought was that the talent was the issue, and Eberflus was getting the most out of these players because they were playing sound football. Now, it appears that the message is not getting across or that the players are just not buying it to the same degree. Losing the team buy-in this early is not good and does not show that he has a good shot at weathering the storm.