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

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

He told a crowd of fans that what everyone saw at the end of the Bears’ awful final 30 seconds in a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions wasn’t actually that bad. Regardless of the context, it was going to go badly. And it did when Eberflus was fired last Friday.

For anyone who missed it over the holidays, the Bears trailed 23-20 in the final minute. Caleb Williams was sacked just before 30 seconds remained in the game. And the clock kept ticking. The Bears had a timeout but didn’t call 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,” Eberflus said after the game as part of his explanation.

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

Matt Eberflus cost the Bears in close games

Part of a coach’s job is what he says after a loss. It’s not a huge part of the job, but you also can’t tell a devoted fan base that your mistakes were actually perfectly fine.

When the Washington Commanders hit the Bears on a Hail Mary and picked up an easy 13 yards on the second-to-last play, when the Bears played long back to give Jayden Daniels a shot to throw it into the end zone, Eberflus said he wasn’t worried about the gain . 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 to kicker Cairo Santos, even though Packers players said afterwards they knew that Santos kicked a low pitch on longer kicks.

Then came the end of the game against the Lions. If you’ve said you’ve never seen anything like it before, you’re right. OptaSTATS said that over the past 30 NFL seasons, in 1,501 instances, there was only one team that lost by three or fewer points and ran a play inside the opponent’s 30 on their final drive, but had the clock expire without attempting a field goal goal or use all their timeouts. It was the Bears on Thursday.

Eberflus had the worst record among all 221 coaches in NFL history with 20 or more games decided by seven or fewer points, according to the Associated Press’ Josh Dubow. Eberflus was 5-17 in the close games. Nor can it be chalked up to an accident.

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

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

How can the bears change things?

The Bears have not won a Super Bowl since the 1985 season. They have 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 either.

The Bears firing a coach midseason was a sign they know clinging to old axioms has held them back. Chicago is stuck in the past in many ways. The Bears must modernize their operation to maximize Williams. They already wasted a season with him and gave defensive-minded head coach Eberflus a season too long after he finished last season on a high note.

Lost in the uproar over Eberflus’ late-game mismanagement was that Williams played a very good second half against Detroit, nearly leading with a wild comeback win. He has had ups and downs as a rookie, but much of that can be attributed to coaching. The Bears’ offense has looked better since firing offensive coordinator Shane Waldron three weeks ago. Maybe it will also 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 it all when it comes to head-coaching hires, so who knows which direction they’ll go this time. But it must be done with William’s development in mind. They can’t afford to blow a big prospect like Williams.

Whatever the Bears decide to do, they can first look to their long history. Then do the opposite.