Tag: Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears hoped that their first in-season coaching change in the franchise’s history would help stop their decline.

However, the problems go deeper than just the coach.

In their first game under interim head coach Thomas Brown, the Bears were beaten 38-13 by San Francisco, extending their losing streak to seven games.

“I believe in the people,” Brown said Monday. “I think it’s all about the guys we have in the locker room, the coaches that we have. I understand our mentality and our approach going forward. As I said at the beginning, we don’t have cowards in the locker room. We don’t have cowards in our coaching staff. Regardless of circumstance, we will come to battle every single day.”

The Bears (4-9) didn’t show much fight on Sunday in a loss that was as embarrassing as any. It meant they will finish with a losing record for the 12th time in 14 seasons.

They were outgained 319-4 in the first half, marking one of the largest yardage differences since 1991, and were down 24-0 by halftime. The team managed just one first down and punted five times in a row on their first possessions.

The Bears gave up a season-high in points and matched their second-worst total by allowing 452 yards. This loss was their biggest since a 41-10 defeat at Kansas City in Week 3 last season.

This was not the outcome they expected when they decided to fire Matt Eberflus on November 29. The decision came after the Bears had a time-management failure in a Thanksgiving game against Detroit, where they couldn’t get off a potential game-tying field goal despite having one timeout remaining. It was just another example of bad late-game decisions.

Beyond the coaching change, it’s clear that there are issues with the roster. Team president Kevin Warren said last week that Ryan Poles will stay as the general manager and lead the search for a new coach, but more losses like this may cause them to rethink that decision.

The last-place Bears’ next two games are against the top two teams in the NFC North, starting with a Monday night game at Minnesota (11-2) followed by a home game against division-leading Detroit (12-1). After that, they will face NFC West leader Seattle (8-5) and finish the season at Green Bay (9-4).

The Chicago Bears didn’t respond well to their first in-season coaching change in franchise history.

Instead of getting an emotional boost from the change, the Bears suffered a blowout against the San Francisco 49ers, losing 38-13 on Sunday in their worst defeat of the season.

“We got our butts kicked,” said interim coach Thomas Brown, who took over after Matt Eberflus was fired. “There’s no other way to say it.”

Eberflus was fired on November 29 after a series of bad decisions in close games led to a six-game losing streak. This included a Thanksgiving loss at Detroit, where the Bears failed to get a potential game-tying field goal off, even though they had a timeout left.

There were no major mistakes late in the game against the 49ers, as the outcome was mostly decided by halftime. The Bears (4-9) were outgained 319-4 in the first half, with only one first down and a 24-0 deficit at the break.

The Bears’ defense allowed San Francisco (6-7) to move the ball easily, with the 49ers scoring three touchdowns and a field goal on their first five possessions.

Chicago couldn’t get anything going on offense, with minus-3 yards passing due to four sacks and losing 37 yards on five failed third downs. It was the team’s largest loss since falling 41-10 at Kansas City in Week 3 last season.

“We got our (butt) kicked today,” said rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. “There’s no way around it. We got it handed to us. As an offense, defense, special teams, myself, we have to come out and be better. We have to have our screws screwed. We have to be on point, and that’s not what happened today.”

Williams had shown improvement in recent weeks, especially after Brown took over as play-caller following the firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

However, Sunday’s performance was a big setback. Even though Williams threw two second-half touchdown passes to rookie Rome Odunze after the game was mostly decided, he finished with 134 yards on 17-for-34 passing, lost a fumble, and was sacked seven times. The Bears gained just 88 yards on his 30 dropbacks.

Williams’ 56 sacks this season are the most for any Bears quarterback since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

“We continue to try to find ways to get our guys open so we get the ball out on time,” Brown said. “When you’re behind and having to come back in games, you’re kind of forced to have to drop back more, which obviously exposes you more to sacks.”

But the problems weren’t just with Williams and the offense.

The Bears’ defense allowed several big plays, with nine plays from scrimmage for the 49ers gaining at least 20 yards, the most the Bears have allowed in any game in the past nine seasons. Chicago also gave up their most points and tied for the second-most yards (452) in any game this season. The defense struggled under Eric Washington, who was calling the plays in place of Eberflus.

“I thought our prep was really good this week,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said. “I thought we had a really good plan and again, we didn’t execute. They kind of made things happen and we didn’t.”

Thomas Brown insists that he is focused on the task at hand and not on what might happen in the future.

His immediate responsibility as the interim coach of the Chicago Bears is to help the team finish strong in the final five games, starting this weekend against San Francisco. He’s not thinking about anything beyond that.

“I think about just the moment. … I obviously understand the role that I’m in, understand what might come with it,” he said Wednesday. “But I also understand that we make most situations bigger than what it has to be because of the outside noise, what everybody else puts a value on it.”

The Bears are going through a situation unlike anything in the franchise’s history.

They fired their head coach for the first time during a season when Matt Eberflus was let go on Friday with a 4-8 record and the team on a six-game losing streak that included some puzzling decisions. Brown, who had just been promoted from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator, was named the interim head coach.

The turning point came after a 23-20 loss to Detroit on Thanksgiving, when the Bears allowed the clock to run down instead of calling a timeout after a sack. This led to Caleb Williams throwing an incomplete pass from the Lions’ 41-yard line as time expired when Chicago should have had enough time for more than one play.

Star cornerback Jaylon Johnson interrupted Eberflus’ postgame speech and made his feelings clear. Other players had also voiced their frustrations with the coaching decisions in the weeks leading up to that game, and they didn’t hold back their emotions after the Detroit loss.

On Wednesday, defensive end DeMarcus Walker said he had a feeling that a change was coming after the loss to the Lions.

“You guys just look at the whole turnaround, how everything had been going, we just knew some changes were going to be made,” he said.

Now 38 years old, Brown has a big opportunity. He was the offensive coordinator for Carolina last season and spent the previous three years with the Los Angeles Rams under Sean McVay, the last two as assistant head coach. Before that, he was an assistant coach in college for nine years, working at Wisconsin, Georgia, Miami, and South Carolina.

His job now is to help fix a team that entered the season believing it had a chance at a playoff spot.

A major part of that job is developing quarterback Caleb Williams. In the three games since Brown took over as offensive coordinator, Williams has looked more comfortable, completing 75 of 117 passes for 827 yards, with five touchdowns, no interceptions, and a rating of 99.2. While Brown will continue to call the plays, the Bears now have another new offensive coordinator in wide receivers coach Chris Beatty.

“I think it is a stepping stone actually with my development because I think down the line I’ll have different OCs or different head coaches or whatever the case may be,” Williams said.

“And so being able to handle it my first year, handle a new playbook, handle all these different changes, handle all of this I think it definitely will help the development instead of hurting it or anything like that.”

Beyond developing the young quarterback, Brown will be judged on his ability to prepare, make decisions during games, and lead the locker room during his audition for the permanent job. He said that after the firing of Eberflus, he reached out to each player individually on Friday and Saturday and tried to set a tone when the team met on Monday.

“I want them to be excellent,” Brown said. “I can nitpick at every single play and tell a guy how he wasn’t perfect. And, so, perfection’s not the goal. It’s to excel at your craft.”

The Chicago Bears have secured the services of seasoned kicker Cairo Santos for an additional four years, inking a lucrative $16 million deal, with $9.5 million guaranteed, according to a source close to the matter as reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The announcement of the extension was made by the Bears on Saturday, with the team opting not to disclose specific financial details.

Expressing enthusiasm about the extension, General Manager Ryan Poles stated, “It is great to extend Cairo for another four years. His consistency and dependability will help us continue to elevate.” Santos, 32, has been the Bears’ kicker since the 2020 season, boasting an impressive record of 104 successful field goals out of 114 attempts during that time, including a stellar 27-of-29 this season. Notably, his 30 field goals in 2020 set a franchise record.

The new contract binds Santos to Chicago until the conclusion of the 2027 season. Santos, who had been playing on the final year of his previous extension, originally signed after setting the Bears’ single-season record with a remarkable 93.8% field goal success rate in 2020.

During his time with the Bears, Santos surpassed the accuracy of the franchise’s longtime kicker, Robbie Gould, making him the most accurate kicker in the team’s history with a 91.2% success rate since rejoining in 2020 (his first stint with the Bears occurred in the 2017 season, playing in two games).

Santos, who earned the title of NFC’s special teams player of the month in November, demonstrated exceptional performance by going 12-for-14 on field goals and 5-for-5 on extra points. His prowess on the field also led the NFL in field goals made, field goals attempted, and points (41) during that month.

Having kicked for various teams over his 10-year career, including the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Tennessee Titans, Santos’ extension is just one of the items on Poles’ to-do list as the Bears approach the offseason. Notably, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, a pending free agent, expressed his desire to stay in Chicago following the 2023 season. However, negotiations for an extension earlier in the season were unsuccessful, and a trade request in October went unfulfilled. Johnson, currently tied for the team lead with four interceptions, remains a focal point for the Bears as they navigate the upcoming offseason.

Being the Bears’ assistant coach appears to come with its own set of difficulties. The Athletic recently revealed that the team’s human resources department had a say in this decision-making process with the sacking of running backs coach David Walker.

The 53-year-old coach had already received a “reprimand” from the team’s HR department for his behavior at work, according to ESPN. It seems that Walker was fired as a result of a second incident of this kind. This was the second midseason departure of an assistant coach; the first being Alan Williams, the former defensive coordinator.

The Bears (2–6) have had a terrible season in 2023; the only bright spot is that they might receive good draft picks in 2024. But the situation is much more confusing because the coaching staff has been changing frequently.

Former Syracuse player and Rochester native David Walker joined the squad with 26 years of coaching experience. His coaching experience included NFL stints with the Colts (2011–14) and the Lions (2016–18), as well as positions as a running backs coach at the university level with Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Interestingly, the Bears led the NFL in rushing yards last season, setting a new record for the team.

With an average of 132.8 rushing yards per game this season, the Bears are sixth in the league even with injuries to starter running back Khalil Herbert and quarterback Justin Fields. Walker’s departure will probably require Chicago to reorganize its coaching staff internally.

Although there are still little specifics regarding Walker’s termination as of early Wednesday morning, it surely raises more questions about the business. This comes after defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned in September, citing “inappropriate” behavior as the cause of his departure, as ESPN reported. The HR department intervened in this situation as well.

Following his resignation, there were speculations that the FBI had raided Williams’ home and the Bears’ facilities; however, Williams’ lawyer strongly refuted these claims. Williams left the organization without a defensive coordinator, citing family and health concerns for his choice. Head coach Matt Eberflus, who is a defensive specialist, is now in charge of the team’s defensive operations.

The Bears made an unexpected move on Tuesday by acquiring pass rusher Montez Sweat in the midst of these coaching changes. In Week 9, they are supposed to play the Saints. According to Tankathon, following Week 8, they will hold the second and third overall picks in the 2024 NFL Draft.