Day for Second-Guessers Leaves Bears Coaches with a Defeat

Tough decisions nade all seemed to go against the Bears late in 21-16 loss to the Colts.

Colts safety Julian Blackmon denies running back D'Andre Swift on a key carry in Sunday's 21-16 Bears loss. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On this day the gaffes didn't belong to Velus Jones Jr. for once.

He was only to be found on the inactive list.

Instead, it was Bears coaches getting the criticism for decisions in play-calling and for how they used timeouts or even how they approached the next play up in a 21-16 loss to the Colts.

About all the players could be cited for was being overly exuberant after Caleb Williams' first career touchdown pass.

Williams and receiver Rome Odunze were among the players celebrating after the 1-yard TD pass drew the Bears back within 14-9 in the fourth quarter, but the play clock was being set and they needed two points to pull within a field goal. So the two-point try seemed obvious.

On the sideline, cameras caught a somewhat chaotic looking situation, as well, and there were signs with one finger up to kick, then two when it seemed everyone realized late in the process they needed to go for two.

No problem. They used a timeout then went for it and failed to get the conversion on an incomplete pass. However, it wasn't so simple because the Bears had to burn a timeout to get the extra point off and later needed that timeout.

This is also on Matt Eberflus who hired Shane Waldron. And he retained Chris Morgan to coach this offensive line.

I wouldn’t trust Matt Eberflus to hire anyone else EVER again.

I’m officially OUT on both Eberflus and Waldron.

— Joey (@CalebGoatQB1) September 22, 2024

'First of all, it was, it wasn't as as good as it should be in terms of our communication there, but we wanted to get a good play on there as well," coach Matt Eberflus admitted.

"But again, we have to be better, stay ahead of it, better be better there when you see communication."

Asked if he meant a player standpoint or coaching standpoint, Eberflus wasn't pointing at any of the players.

"No, that's, that's on the coaches," he said. "On the coaches.

The Rams are down half their starting depth chart & are a FG away from beating the 49ers.

Coaching matters a lot in football. The constant inability for Matt Eberflus’ team to rise to the occasion is a big indictment on his abilities as a head coach. #Bears

— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) September 22, 2024

"We got to be better there from the from the top to the bottom, you know, from upstairs down to the bottom. So we got to do a better job there."

Eberflus, himself, was in for some second-guessing when he used a timeout with 5:25 left and the Colts at the Bears 2-yard line after Caleb Williams had lost the ball on a strip-sack. The Colts were on the verge up going up 21-9 and the Bears were going to need every possible timeout.

Yet Eberflus called one at this point.

The Bears had the golden opportunity to reset everything. You wanted to draft Caleb ok cool, move on from Eberflus and bring in an entire new coaching staff. Alot of us wanted Harbaugh. But nope we did the same thing we did with Fields & Trubisky.

— Gregory Bell II (@BobbyBooshay713) September 22, 2024

"I was just conserving time there to give us a chance," Eberflus said.

It proved out they were able to get the ball back for a final drive and would have even had a chance to get the clock stopped for it despite his decision to burn a timeout because the Colts unwittingly downed it in the end zone on the kickoff after Caleb Williams threw a TD pass to Cole Kmet without letting the clock run past the two-minute warning.

WASTEFUL BEARS TOSS AWAY OPPORTUNITIES IN LOSS TO COLTS

CALEB WILLIAMS SEES SIGNS IT'S COMING TOGETHER BUT NOT IN TIME FOR WIN

Every minute Matt Eberflus remains the head coach of the Chicago Bears is a direct reflection of the incompetence of Ryan Poles, Kevin Warren and the McCaskeys. He is not qualified to do this. It’s an insult to the players and people who care about this stupid franchise.

— Jeremiah Davis (@jeremiahdavis10) September 22, 2024

Still, that timeout might have been valuable.

Their most controversial decision was a simple play call. Three straight Khalil Herbert runs failed to get it into the end zone from the 4-yard line just before halftime. Then they ran an option toss outside to D'Andre Swift. Williams had defensive players in the backfield barely before he could make a move left in order to pitch it, and Swift was creamed after eluding a few tacklers on a 12-yard loss. The lack of points there was huge, but particularly not getting the touchdown.

"The first one, you know, (we) ran a couple dive plays in there and got it to the to the inside the 1, just just inside the 1, there and you know they were in big people (personnel) and we liked the play," Eberflus said. "We just got to get to the second level, get to the linebacker there, zone up to him and get him there on that."

Eberflus wasn't going to criticize anyone in this situation other than the execution.

"But I know the design of the play was to go against that personnel group time out there for that first touchdown," he said.

Caleb Williams has gotten better over the past 3 games. Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron have not. That's a big problem. #Bears

— TW (@Tylow237) September 22, 2024

Twitter: BearsOnSI