Who is to blame for the Chicago Bears Hail Mary loss?

Matt Eberflus deserves the most blame

If you were hopeful that the glam-up of Matt Eberflus was enough to turn him into a Super Bowl-caliber coach, you need to wake up. This game further proves that the top moments are too big for Eberflus. Many fans wanted him to be fired before the 2024 season, but he was kept by Ryan Poles (another reason Poles is on this blame list) and it is biting this team in the behind.

Eberflus does not know how to properly manage a game. He is also to blame for the Doug Kramer FB Dive play that led to a fumble on the exchange at the mesh point between Caleb Williams and Kramer. That is not a play you make when trying to take the lead being down by one score. If you want to run a play like that, you do it when the team is up by at least two scores. That wasn't even the worst of it though.

On the second to last play, Matt Eberflus did not have his players closer to the line of scrimmage to take away any quick sideline passes to move the Commanders closer to the end zone. Jayden Daniels was playing hurt with a rib injury and although his deep ball looked effortless, he was not going to get the ball into the end zone without quickly moving the ball another 12 to 13 yards. Daniels hit a quick out route and left 0:02 on the clock for the final play.

Matt Eberflus defended the decision to not play the sideline and said that Washington would have just converted to a Hail Mary. Wrong. Daniels didn't even get the ball into the end zone after the out route put the Commanders in a better position. He definitely wasn't going to get the ball to the goalline if they were 12 yards further back. Instead, Chicago would likely have been trying to stop a crazy lateral play. I'd rather have seen this happen.

Members of the defense have called out the decision-making of Eberflus on the final two plays. Jaylon Johnson still wonders why a timeout wasn't called. It could have been called on the second to last play (Chicago had all three left) to make the decision to take away the sideline. Even if Eberflus didn't use the timeout on that play, why wasn't Eberflus using a timeout on the final play of the game? Who is not telling him, if he isn't seeing it, that Tyrique Stevenson is goofing around and not ready? For sure the Chicago Bears needed a timeout to collect themselves before the final play.

Matt Eberflus seems to disagree.

No accountability for himself, his coaching staff, or the players. Now we are hearing that Jaylon Johnson, Kevin Byard,  and even, to some degree, Cole Kmet are calling players and coaches out. Could the locker room be turning on Eberflus? For a team sitting at 4-3 on the year, it feels like this team is quickly flaming out. Matt Eberflus won't get fired mid-season (Bears refuse to do that), but if he keeps losing these winnable games he will be on his way out before next offseason.

If he wants to stick around, then he should bench Tyrique Stevenson for at least a quarter (maybe more) to send a message throughout the locker room. I doubt he does though and it will just show that there is not enough, if any, accountability.