Second-Guessing Bears Failures on Both Sides

Bears coach Matt Eberflus admits he wishes he could have had a play back in the loss, but won't blame offensive play calling as too conservative.

It was a Monday for second-guessing decisions made in a game with an abundance of big decisions.

Tight, low-scoring games often lend themselves to this type of scrutiny because every decision can swing the game, and this perfectly decribed Sunday's 20-17 Bears loss to Cleveland.

One of the biggest decisions was made by coach Matt Eberflus, while offensive decisions by coordinator Luke Getsy also stoked fan fires after the loss.

Eberflus' big defensive call worthy of second-guesses was the third-and-15 decision to drop 309-pound defensive tackle Justin Jones in to short zone coverage while bringing what Eberflus referred to as "sim pressure." They basically wanted Joe Flacco to throw the ball too soon, before his target could get open or in a place where defenders would rally to the ball and force a fourth-down play.

"You're overloading the pressure and you're expecting that to get home," Eberflus said. "Like I said last night, he (Flacco) retreated back for a little bit deeper and had a chance to float it over the top.

"Again, that was unfortunate, again like I said (Sunday afternoon), it's a play that's designed to get the ball spit out fast and tackle them and get them to fourth down."

Eberflus only explained the play itself on Sunday afternoon and Monday, not why he thought a 300-pound lineman trying to cover open space in front of tight end David Njoku was necessary on that particular down over others when he had effective coverage from his secondary using less exotic strategies. It didn't seem a good time to try such a maneuver considering how well the Bears defense seemed to be pressuring and covering against the Browns passing attack until the late fourth quarter.

Flacco stepped back, lofted it over Jones to Njoku, who was alone and uncovered by anyone else. Njoku raced for a 34-yard gain to the Bears 19 with 56 seconds left to set up the winning field goal. What Eberflus said about regretting the play call probably explained all of this better.

"Yeah, you know I've been calling defenses for 12 years, 13 years now, and every game you have three or four that you want back," he said. "So, again, that one there, when it doesn't work in a critical situation, of course you’d like to see it work in that situation, but it didn't."

Offensive second-guessing revolved more around what receiver Darnell Mooney had called being too "comfortable" in the third quarter, as well as a fourth-down run from the Browns 33 by Justin Fields that failed to net the needed distance. Fields could have run or thrown it to DJ Moore on the play.

The option Fields chose was not one Eberflus felt needed to be criticized.

"It's a well-designed play," Eberflus said. "He decided to run it and he got tripped up (from behind), he got tripped up at the point. And again, if he had more time and didn't have that defender, he'd end up triggering and we could throw it over the top to DJ, too."

This was at a point in the game where Mooney had said after game the Bears seemed in a lull of sorts, or "comfortable."

The fourth-down play came on the first play of the fourth quarter and ended the fourth drive of the second half. In third quarter, including that drive which ended on the first play of the fourth quarter, the Bears had a field goal and a defensive touchdown to expand their lead to 17-7.

However, the Browns took the ball from that failed fourth down and drove to a field goal.

"That was the momentum play," Eberflus said of the fourth down. "Those are the plays we've got to make. Those are the plays that we, like I said, that was a good call for that down, and we've got to make those plays."

The third-quarter struggles on offense weren't a case of conservative play-calling according to Eberflus and also tight end Cole Kmet, if they were struggles at all.

Actually, their two longest drives of the second half came in the third quarter.

"I don't think we got too comfortable," tight end Cole Kmet said. "I could maybe see how you could feel like that given the three-and-outs. But we just weren't executing. I think the plays were there.

"You go look at the film today. The calls and the plays were there. We've just got to execute and we've got to be able to execute when it matters there and be able to like I said suck up some clock, get some first downs."

Eberflus called it more a case of failing to take advantage of opportunity with lack of execution than lack of direction. It's not easy executing against the No. 1 defense in the league.

"We just got to keep doing that and 'you've got to seize momentum thing' is all about execution, right?" he said. "And it’s about energy, right? You gotta have that in any part of the game, but you certainly have to have that at the end, because the NFL is the NFL. It’s the way you finish that matters."

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