10 reasons the Bears need to fire Matt Eberflus immediately

The core premise of what I'm about to write is simple. The Chicago Bears are a bad football team, and it's the head coach's fault. Matt Eberflus needs to go.

The Bears have been around for over 100 years, and they've never fired a head coach in the middle of the season before. I'm not sure what's more impressive: that, or the fact that the best quarterback in franchise history is someone who served in World War II. What I do know is that both things need to change.

The Bears have been doing things a certain way for a long time, and I think we can all agree that it's just not working. The team hasn't won a Super Bowl since 1986, hasn't been to one since 2007, and hasn't won a playoff game since 2011.

One look around the NFC North makes it painfully clear that the Bears won't be changing that any time soon, at least not with the current regime in place. The Lions look like the best team in the NFL. The Vikings are 7-2, while the Packers have managed to go 6-3 despite being without their starting quarterback for long stretches. Even worse, the Bears still play these teams six times before the end of the season, beginning next week when the Packers visit Soldier Field.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles was empowered by ownership to trade away the No. 1 overall pick to the Carolina Panthers, and that turned out pretty well. He needs to be trusted with the power to make a decision about the head coach, too. Not at the end of the season, but right now. Here's why.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he's lost the fans

Fans are a fickle bunch. One win can have them looking up Super Bowl tickets, while one loss can make them openly pine for the start of baseball season. It would be foolish to run an organization based solely on the whims of the fans, but we're far past the point where they can be ignored.

Soldier Field was not a fun place to be on Sunday. Over 58,000 fans packed the stadium, hoping to cheer on a Bears win against the lowly Patriots, and instead they spent the majority of the afternoon booing in unison because the Bears gave them nothing to cheer about for three hours straight.

Even outside the stadium, fans have had it. Online discussion of the Bears is more toxic than anything the election threw at us, and that's saying something. Radio shows and podcasts have become therapy sessions. For a fanbase that has been famously divided over issues before (most recently in the Justin Fields vs. Caleb Williams debate), the fact that the fans are so unanimous in wanting Eberflus gone has to count for something.

Bears fans are among the most loyal in the league. They travel to road games and support the team through thick and thin. It takes a lot to get them to this point.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he's lost the locker room

Even if Ryan Poles chose to ignore the torches and pitchforks of the fans, it's clear that Bears players are done with Eberflus, too. You can tell a lot about how much a team loves their coach by how hard they play for him. Great coaches make their teams want to run through the proverbial brick wall for them. Bad coaches don't just fail to inspire their players, they actively suck the energy and motivation from them.

Look at the "effort" by Keenan Allen here. He's the one assigned to block the player that tackled DJ Moore for a loss.

Speaking of DJ Moore, his attitude is also indicative of the need for a coaching change. His body language has been terrible for most of the season, and his tepid defense of Eberflus after last week's loss was about as close as someone can come to saying the coaching is the problem without coming right out and saying it. Jaylon Johnson, Cole Kmet and others have also publicly called out Eberflus and the coaching staff.

Eberflus is known as a positive, rah-rah kind of guy, but the entire team walks around with slumped shoulders and no energy. Once you lose the locker room, you can't get it back. The team no longer believes in him. It's time to cut bait.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he's stunting the growth of Caleb Williams

Bears fans can live with cheering for a bad team. We've done it most of our lives, it's nothing new. This time is different though, because we finally got a can't-miss quarterback in Caleb Williams. If you told Bears fans before the season that the team would go 7-10 but Caleb would throw for 4,000 yards and look the like guy that everyone hoped he could be, we would have signed up for that in a heartbeat.

Instead, we're getting the worst of both worlds, as the Bears are headed toward a losing record and Caleb's development is stuck in neutral. Caleb has all the tools needed to be a star in this league, but Eberflus and his coaching philosophy are stunting his rookie quarterback's growth.

One of Caleb's best attributes coming out of college was his ability to innovate and make things happen out of structure. Some people (unfairly) compared him to Patrick Mahomes because of that. In recent weeks, we haven't seen any of that, because Caleb has looked like a quarterback that's afraid to make a mistake.

Bears fans have seen this too many times before. Mitch Trubisky was forced to play this way by John Fox. Justin Fields faced the same thing under Matt Nagy, and again under Eberflus. We can all agree that turnovers are bad, but you know what's worse? A quarterback that's afraid to let it rip because he's afraid to mess up.

Caleb showed what he could do in back-to-back wins over the Panthers and Jaguars as he threw for six touchdowns and one interception, but since the bye week, he has zero touchdowns and zero interceptions in three games. Do you know how impossible that is? It's little surprise that the Bears have scored just 27 points in that stretch, less than they did in either of those wins.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he can't win on the road

Coming into Sunday's game, the Bears had won eight straight games at Soldier Field. That's great, even if the streak ended with the 19-3 loss to the Patriots. There's one small problem, though. Half the games the Bears play are on the road, and Eberflus has shown that he just doesn't know how to win when he can't drive his own car to the game.

Eberflus is 3-18 on the road. For all you statisticians out there, that's a 14.3 winning percentage. For comparison, the Chicago White Sox achieved the dubious distinction of setting the modern record for most losses in a season with 121. They are arguably the worst baseball team of all-time. Their winning percentage is 25.3, nearly double that of Matt Eberflus on the road.

There's a reason they call it home field advantage. Road teams need to travel. They're away from their family. They have to deal with crowd noise. You can't win on the road by accident. You need a competent coach that can help his team rise above everything that's working against them. Eberflus has shown that he just doesn't have it in him.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he can't beat good teams

The Bears are 4-5. Not the best record by any means, but not a total embarrassment either. Theoretically, they're still in the hunt for the playoffs. Realistically though, that's not going to happen, because under Eberflus, they're only capable of beating bad teams. Have you seen the back half of the schedule?

The Bears handled their business against the Panthers and the Jags, two teams that are half jungle cat and half dumpster fire. They stole a win against the Titans in Week 1, who have been proven to be one of the most inept teams in the league in the weeks since.

"What about the Rams?" you say, since Sean McVay's club is now 4-4 and winners of three straight. When the Bears faced L.A. in Week 4, they were without both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. Still, the Rams were in the game until the very end. If those two teams faced off today, I have no doubt that the outcome would be different.

The Bears don't get to play any bad teams the rest of the way. Who are they going to beat in their current state? Not anyone in the division. Not the 49ers with a now-healthy Christian McCaffrey. A Thursday night home game against the Seahawks in Week 17 is the team's best chance for a win, but even that feels dicey.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he chose Shane Waldron to be his offensive coordinator

I'm just going to come out and say it. Shane Waldron stinks. His offense has no flow. There's no rhyme or reason to his play calls. He has a top-five receiving corps, yet he can't scheme anybody open.

Waldron doesn't tailor his play calls to his personnel. The offensive line is banged up and arguably the worst in the league, yet there are almost no quick throws for Caleb to get the ball out of his hands before the pass rush gets to him. Roschon Johnson had scored on every goal line touch, yet Waldron dialed up a handoff to a backup lineman against the Commanders.

Waldron doesn't put his best players in a position to succeed. Cole Kmet seemed to be breaking out when he caught five balls for 70 yards and two touchdowns against the Jaguars a month ago. Since then he has three catches on five targets for 27 yards in three games.

The Bears offense starts the game as if it hasn't practiced. Some offensive coordinators are good at scripting the first drive or two to get points. Not Waldron. The Bears have 10 points in the first quarter all season. Every week I type that, and every week it gets a little more unbelievable, but it remains true.

The Bears interviewed Kliff Kingsbury this offseason, yet chose Waldron to run their offense. Kingsbury is lighting it up with the 7-2 Commanders. Waldron is doing this:

We feel your pain, Caleb.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he doesn't know how to close out games

On the rare occasion that the Bears are in position to actually win a game, Eberflus, through gross game mismanagement, often finds a way to muck it up. The Commanders game is Exhibit A, as Eberflus allowed Washington to easily get to midfield with no resistance. Then he failed to call a timeout to make sure his defensive players knew their assignment on the upcoming Hail Mary. This would have been helpful, as Tyrique Stevenson was busy prancing around and interacting with fans in the crowd rather than focusing on the play.

That wasn't the first time the Bears have stolen defeat from the jaws of victory under Eberflus.

Bears fans have tried to erase these games from their memory banks, so I apologize for revisiting this trauma upon all of you. Eberflus just doesn't know how to win, period. His late-game decision-making is abysmal, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that I would be more comfortable with a halfway decent Madden player making decisions in the fourth quarter when the Bears have a lead.

Eberflus bungles his timeouts every week, whether it's just not using them at all like he did in Washington, or it's burning them early in the half because the team isn't lined up properly or has too many men on the field. I've seen the Bears use a timeout on the first play of a possession. That's not normal, people. We don't have to accept this kind of coaching malpractice.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he doubles down on mistakes

Eberflus' ineptitude is infuriating enough, but what makes it exponentially worse is that he never admits wrongdoing in any meaningful way. He's the walking embodiment of that NSFW meme of Goofy saying that he'll do it again.

After the Commanders game, Eberflus said that the penultimate play that put Washington in Hail Mary range "really doesn't matter." Bears fans aren't asking for perfection from the head coach, but a bit of introspection and accountability seems reasonable, doesn't it? Eberflus is unwilling to learn, which makes him unwilling to grow. That's the opposite of being innovative, and guess what? It's not like Eberflus' coaching style is already light years ahead of the league. What he's been doing hasn't worked, and he's too stubborn to change. What are we doing here?

It seems that every week, Eberflus stands at the podium and says that the Bears looked great in practice and he likes what he sees. I genuinely can't tell if he gets up each week and says these things because he believes that, as the leader of the team, he's supposed to project confidence, but he's not fooling anybody. If you mess up, own it. Tyrique Stevenson may have committed one of the most boneheaded plays of all-time, but at least he took some responsibility for it. Eberflus is like Kevin Bacon's character yelling "All is well!" right before he gets trampled at the end of Animal House. All is not well, and it's time something is done about it.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he isn't protecting Caleb Williams

We spoke above about how Eberflus is responsible for Caleb's lack of development in recent weeks. That's bad enough, but he's lucky that he hasn't also gotten Caleb killed.

Every week it seems that another quarterback goes down with a serious injury. Amazingly, Caleb has avoided one of his own, but it hasn't been for lack of trying on the part of the coaching staff. Each of the last two Bears games has been decided by at least 16 points, yet for some reason Caleb was out there throwing it until the final whistle. Why? Would a meaningless late touchdown make anybody feel better about the team's performance? As the old saying goes, you can't put lipstick on a pig.

Caleb is taking a beating out there, and Eberflus keeps putting him in harm's way. He tweaked an ankle on the final drive of the 29-9 loss to the Cardinals, and he was sacked twice in the final two minutes against New England to bring his total on the day to nine. I can picture Principal Rooney from Ferris Bueller's Day Off saying, "Nine times." No other quarterback has been sacked that much in a game this year, and the New England defense isn't even any good!

The Bears have a fourth-rate offensive line right now, but Eberflus is keeping Caleb in to get pummeled when the games are already decided. Of all the things on this list, that's the most fireable one.

Matt Eberflus needs to be fired immediately because he's 14-29

As Bill Parcells once said, "You are what your record says you are." The Bears are 14-29 under Matt Eberflus. That's enough of a sample size to draw a simple conclusion. He's not a good head coach, and there's no reason to think that will change.

The Bears may have been able to hire Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson this offseason if they had fired Eberflus in January. The Lions offense under Johnson is outstanding. Just imagine what he could do with Caleb. The Bears may have been able to get Jim Harbaugh, who has immediately turned the Chargers from a Bears-like joke that invented new ways to lose each week, to a professional team that plays great defense, sustains drives and doesn't beat itself. The Bears could have hired Mike Vrabel, who for years kept the Titans competitive despite trotting out a subpar roster week after week.

The Bears have never fired a head coach in the middle of the season, but it's time to try something new after decades of failing to live up to the legacy of being one of the NFL's model franchises. Firing Shane Waldron or giving somebody else playcalling duties isn't going to stop the bleeding. Thank you for your service, Matt Eberflus, but you've got to go.