Bear Digest

Bears and Matt Eberflus Hoping to Block Out the Negative Noise

Analysis: Matt Eberflus has come under fire and Bears player claim they don't let negativity from outside influence how they're playing.

Gene Chamberlain

It's getting tough on the sidelines for Matt Eberflus, Caleb Williams and the Bears in Sunday's loss at Arizona.
It's getting tough on the sidelines for Matt Eberflus, Caleb Williams and the Bears in Sunday's loss at Arizona. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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Coach Matt Eberflus sees his Bears improving.

No, really.

It seems a strange thing to hear considering Eberflus is among the names near the top of the next-coach-to-be-fired odds with Caesars' Sports Book.

Actually, Eberflus isn't as high as some might think he'd be on that odds chart, mainly because of other bleak coaching situations and also because of Jerry Jones.

Eberflus is +650, or a 13.3% chance to be next fired. The leader on the board is Brian Daboll of the Giants at +250 or a 28.6% chance, with Jaguars coach Doug Pederson second at +375, Mike McCarthy of the Cowboys third at +450 and Kevin Stefanski of the Browns, fourth at +600.

Eberflus likes pointing out improvement with a team or a player is not always on an upward trend, and so the Bears are apparently on a two-week plateau by this way of looking at it.

"Again, we're a growing team, we're an improving team," Eberflus said. "I know we haven't improved the last couple of weeks in terms of the win-loss column, but we have to continue to find answers and continue to improve to where we are in the season.

"We're 4-4, we're halfway through. We have to do a good job of finding answers coming into the Patriots week."

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The view by the Bears is plenty of teams go from 4-4 at the halfway point to get into the playoffs and this is true.

They don't usually do it when they face one of the toughest schedules in the league over the final nine games. In fact, they have the toughest remaining schedule according to Tankathon.com, at a .548 winning percentage for opponents.

"Like I said, it's not linear, we talked about that," Eberflus said. "We had three wins in a row and again, there's still good things that we're doing.

"We're still good with the football, we've been doing a great job with that."

The Bears had eight turnovers, seventh lowest heading into the Monday night game between the Chiefs and Buccaneers.

"We've done a good job of playing complementary football at times but the last couple of weeks, we've just got to make sure that we do a good job of finding answers coming into this week, coming up," Eberflus said. "That's the only thing we can control, is this week right here."

If the pressure has ratcheted up on the players at 4-4 now, and on Eberflus, the Bears coach shrugs off the effect.

"Just rely on the men in the room," Eberflus said of his team. "Like I said to the guys after the game, it's all going to be about us. It's going to be about the men in the room and the character and the toughness and the determination that each guy has and collectively that we have as a football team.

"You rely on that and that's what you can rely on is the people that we've brought into the building and really that's all we need. We've got to do a great job of coming together, staying connected and doing a good job of the execution and improving on the aspects we need to improve on."

The outside noise probably gets to most players more than they will admit. Mitchell Trubisky once said he didn't listen to it and then later was asking that the televisions in Halas Hall be turned off.

Rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze says he has managed not to worry about it.

"I don't got Twitter or nothing, I don't really go on social media to look at people criticizing the organization, so I don't hear it," Odunze said. "But there's always sources like (media members) letting me know that those things are going on, so of course I'm naive to those things going on but I hear it but I don't hear, you know what I mean?

"It's things that I pay no mind to and have no sort of priority in my train of thought."

Safety Kevin Byard has been through enough seasons to expect these ups and downs.

“So for me, I just tend to focus on what's true and I tend to focus on what's in front of me and I tend to focus on the guys and the coaches that's in our building,” Byard said. “The outside news is going to be there. There's nothing that you can (do to) stop that.

“It's all about how you manage distractions, manage things that come about throughout the year whether it's in the building or outside the building.”

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.