Bears’ Matt Eberflus is “confident” he will practice against the 49ers in Week 14

The beleaguered coach noted that he met with team president Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles after Thursday’s loss – as he does after every game – and will meet again later on Friday.

The Bears got off to a slow start Sunday, but a forced fumble at the end of the half turned the tide. Caleb Williams threw three touchdowns in the second half, putting Chicago in position to tie or win the game in regulation time.

Williams recorded a sack with 32 seconds left. Eberflus avoided the chance to call an immediate timeout, hoping to get a playoff and then take advantage of his last stop. However, the rookie quarterback used up too much time before snapping the ball with six seconds left. A deep shot from Rome Oduze missed and the Bears left Detroit with a timeout in the bag and another L.

“Our hope was 15 to 10 seconds once that sack occurred that we could make the playoffs and use that timeout there,” Eberflus said. “Once you get to a certain point with a timeout, the quick field goal really takes a certain amount of time. And once you get past a certain point, we were hoping the ball would get snapped at 15-10, and then we would call timeout right there.”

It didn’t happen. With a rookie QB, it was up to Eberflus to take command of the situation. He failed, making his already dismal seat in Chicago hot.

“I watched the entire last drive with (offensive coordinator) Thomas (Brown) this morning,” Eberflus said. “I talked to him about all the details about the calls and our location, and I liked the operation. Just the penalties I thought got us behind the posts a couple of times there. “We were in position to score and we could really do it.” From then on, the game was mine. Ultimately, I take full responsibility for this. We didn’t make it, and it’s unfortunate for the players, for the fans, and that’s what we’re going to do. Back to work San Francisco is just around the corner. (I’ll watch the tape again today and then drive on to San Francisco.)

A sixth straight loss dropped the Bears to 4-8. It is the fourth straight season that Chicago has started with four or fewer wins in 12 weeks. Eberflus has been head coach for three seasons.