The Bears had never fired a coach during a season, but Matt Eberflus gave them no choice

The worst thing about the Chicago Bears’ absolute stupidity at the end of their Thanksgiving loss might be that Matt Eberflus said afterward that he liked what they did.

Regardless of the context, telling a fan base that what everyone saw at the end of the Bears’ terrible final 30 seconds against the Detroit Lions actually wasn’t all that bad would end badly. And that’s what happened when Eberflus was fired on Friday.

For anyone who missed it on vacation: The Bears were down 23-20 in the final minute. Caleb Williams was sacked shortly before the end of the game. And the clock kept ticking. The Bears had a timeout but didn’t use it. Williams looked like a confused rookie. Eberflus didn’t throw him a life preserver. The clock ticked down to six seconds, and when the ball was finally snapped, Williams’ incomplete pass downfield was the final play of the game.

“I like what we did there,” said Eberflus after the game.

The Bears had never fired a coach in a season before, a fact they made sure everyone was aware of on multiple occasions. They had to break this strange tradition for Eberflus, and it wasn’t just the Thanksgiving fiasco that led to it.

Matt Eberflus beat the Bears in close games

Part of a coach’s job is what he says after a defeat. It’s not a big part of the job, but you also can’t tell a loyal fan base that your mistakes were actually completely okay.

When the Washington Commanders beat the Bears on a Hail Mary, easily gaining 13 yards on the second-to-last play, when the Bears passed wide back to give Jayden Daniels a shot to throw into the end zone, Eberflus said he did it myself Don’t worry about that 13-yard play. Meanwhile, Commanders coach Dan Quinn said the Commanders couldn’t have completed the Hail Mary without it.

In a loss to the Green Bay Packers, a last-second field goal was blocked. Eberflus said the team “felt good” about not trying to move the ball closer for kicker Cairo Santos, even though Packers players said afterward they knew Santos was shooting low trajectory on longer shots.

Then came the Lions’ end-of-game situation. If you say you’ve never seen anything like this, you’re right. OptaSTATS said that in the last 30 NFL seasons, in 1,501 cases, there has only been one team that lost by three points or fewer and completed a play within the opponent’s 30 points on its final drive, but whose time expired without that a field goal was attempted or everyone uses their timeouts. That was the Bears on Thursday.

According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Eberflus had the worst record of any 221 coaches in NFL history with 20 or more games decided by seven or fewer points. Eberflus had a record of 5-17 in these close games. Nor can it be attributed to bad luck.

The Bears aren’t exactly a clean organization either. They let Eberflus speak to the media on Friday and then fired him a few hours later. That’s a really unprofessional look.

The entire franchise needs a cleanup. Maybe it started on Friday.

How can the Bears make a difference?

The Bears haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1985. They’ve never had a 4,000-yard passer. They haven’t won a playoff game since January 2011.

And they’ve never had a quarterback prospect like Caleb Williams.

The Bears’ firing of a coach midseason was a sign that they know clinging to old principles is holding them back. In many ways, Chicago is stuck in the past. The Bears need to modernize their operation to maximize Williams. They’ve already wasted a season on him and given defensive-minded head coach Eberflus one season too long after he finished last season with a good performance.

Lost in the furor over Eberflus’ mismanagement at the end of the game was that Williams played a very good second half against Detroit and nearly pulled off a wild comeback win. He had his ups and downs as a rookie, but a lot of that can be attributed to coaching. The Bears’ offense has looked better since they fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron three weeks ago. Maybe things will look even better with Eberflus gone. The Bears as a whole can’t help but be more organized at the end of games from now on.

The Bears have tried everything when it comes to hiring head coaches, so who knows what direction they’ll go this time. But it has to be done with Williams’ development in mind. They can’t afford to screw up a great prospect like Williams.

Whatever the Bears do, they can start by taking a look at their long history. Then do the opposite.