Given Matt Eberflus returning next year—and no one has reported this directly referring to a Bears source—the next question then becomes obvious.If Eberflus is coming back, what about Justin Fields and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy?
It’s easy to build the case for Eberflus’ return when the Bears defense has become more dominant than any time since 2018, leading in rushing defense and interceptions and also now a top-10 team in passer rating against.
Even if you think offense is so important, there is no denying teams with great defenses contend. The best team in the league right now has a great defense, the Baltimore Ravens and it’s always this way with defense.
Eberflus on Monday wasn’t about to announce the decisions on the fates of Fields and Getsy but did find plenty to like from both of them.
If the Bears go into Green Bay against a team trying to make the playoffs, and they get another performance like against Arizona and Atlanta in successive weeks, like against Detroit at Soldier Field in December, then it would be difficult to imagine the Bears deciding either of those two must go.
Justin Houdini
Eberflus didn’t really know what fans were chanting during the game when they were hollering “We want Justin,” but he found out shortly after the game but later found out “through my girls,” when he talked to his family.
Eberflus thought the 268 yards was impressive, maybe almost as much as no turnovers.
“Yeah, some of the ‘wow’ plays, of course,” he said. “He evaded the sack on the third down from the three guys. That was pretty cool. How he got out of that, I’m not sure.”
DJ Moore called it Houdini-like.
“Like DJ said, Houdini,” Eberflus said. “That was pretty cool. He continues to throw the ball down the field with accuracy, which is really cool. And he’s done that throughout his whole career.
“We’re just taking more shots now, I believe, I know. It’s good to see. And it’s too bad that (Tyler) Scott couldn’t come down with that one catch. I think it was a really good play and I thought he had it. He thought he tracked it well and I think as contact was made, I just think that it knocked his other arm off of there from the safety there, but really good throw on that one, too.”
So what more could the Bears want to see with one game remaining?
“Yeah, I would say the consistency piece,” Eberflus said. “Just continue to do it. Stack another game just like that, where you have that running and the passing, the accuracy, the touchdowns, the no turnovers. And just consistency at that, is really what it is. Let’s stack two like that. And that would be a good start.”
Eberflus would go no closer to committing to anything.
“Yeah, like I said, we’re just gonna look at his performances right now and we’ll talk about all those big-picture questions after the season, with Ryan (Poles) and myself and we’ll see where it goes from there. But we love where his progress is. He’s been more consistent.
“We like what he’s done the last six games in terms of the turnovers, the sacks, touchdowns, taking care of the football, throwing the ball down the field. Those are all positive things and again we’ll assess that as we get going here in the near future.”
Rising Offense
After the Cleveland game when they had one offensive touchdown on a 1-yard drive and also a field goal, the offense went back to work against less dominant defenses and has risen. They’re 16th in scoring, the best they’ve been since 2018. They are 17th in offense. Getsy doesn’t have a room wallpapered with his game plans yet but that ranking is better than any offensive ranking achieved by the Bears under the guy who did — Matt Nagy. They haven’t been ranked better than 17th at the end of a season since Jay Cutler’s final year, when they were 15th under coordinator Dowell Loggains in 2016 with a 3-13 team.
Eberflus acknowledged Getsy received plenty of blame when the offense struggled.
“Yeah, I would say that when you’re a play-caller on the offense or defense or in any franchise, I would just say that, you’re like a quarterback, right?” Eberflus said. “You get a lot of credit when things go well and you get a lot of blame when things don’t go well. And again, when plays work, they’re good calls, right? And when they don’t, the coordinator gets the criticism.
“I’ve had that a lot of my career. Certainly Luke’s had his share of that this year, too. But to me it’s part of the job and to me, you always point back to the players. When it works well, the guys executed the plan well and the play well that you called. And it’s really a credit to them, focus in on the execution. And when it doesn’t go well, guess what? As a coordinator you have to have big shoulders and say, ‘You know what? I’ve got to do a better job.’ Luke has done that. I’ve done that. And if you’re a good coordinator, that’s what you do.”
Eberflus and players sang Getsy’s praises for an excellent game plan Sunday.
“I just thought it was a good blend of pass and run and stuff off of our run stuff and for some reason they leave DJ Moore open way more than they should,” tight end Cole Kmet said.
They produced double-digit explosive plays the last two games.
“Yeah, I mean, there’s obviously the big chunk plays that we had yesterday,” Eberflus said. “Those are really good designs. Right? Those are good plays putting our players in position, right?
“The players that make the big plays, DJ is one of those guys. You’ve got to be able to put those guys in position. You’ve got to be able to have some checks and adjustments based on the coverages to get into the right play and some of those are just run-it plays and again those are plays that work well and that is a credit to Luke.”
Sunday’s win was perhaps more impressive from that end because Getsy had to devise an offensive scheme without Darnell Mooney as a second target and with the second-most dependable target, Kmet, reduced to 13 plays due to an injury.
“I thought guys stepped up, like Bobby (Tonyan) stepped up really well and did a nice job,” Eberflus said. “And the players really stepped up well, too. And again, it was a well-called game as well.
Playing It Out
Eberflus will wait to say anything on either of those situations. It would make little sense to say something now either way. There’s still a game remaining. And maybe no decision has actually been reached.
In both cases, it might depend greatly on Eberflus and his standing with the organization. If he thinks he has to make the playoffs next year to keep his job, it doesn’t make sense to pin your hopes on a rookie if the current starter is playing well.
Changing offensive coordinators can also be a gamble but it’s easier to find one who can be immediately successful than it is to find a rookie quarterback who does this.
In Fields’ case, the whole thing could actually depend on what they think of Caleb Williams more than performance by their current starter. No one will say yet.
Either way, nothing is likely to be known about QB until they either pick in the draft or decide on a trade prior to it.
Evaluation comes next week in days after the Packers game.
“Just like I said, any question like that I’m going to answer it the same way and it’s just going to be til next week,” Eberflus said. “We’ll look at everything, all encompassing, players, coaches, everybody.
“You know, we’ll sit down and have evaluations with everybody and we’ll do that next week.”
They’d like for it to be even later than next week, but the progress with those two and everyone else on the team wasn’t quite enough to earn a postseason berth or even make Sunday’s season finale a game they need for the playoffs, like it is for Green Bay.
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