Giants Loss Showed Glaring Weakness In Matt Eberflus’ Coaching
There were many reasons why the Chicago Bears lost to the New York Giants on Sunday. Justin Fields got sacks way too much. The wide receivers couldn’t hang onto passes. The defense allowed over 260 yards rushing. It was painfully evident how undermanned this team was in that game. They don’t have enough playmakers. However, it was still a winnable football game. Sadly, their head coach Matt Eberflus deserves much of the blame for that.
What stood out the most from the loss was how painfully conservative the Bears were in their decision-making. It started in the first quarter. Chicago drove 77 yards to the Giants’ 4-yard line and faced 4th and 2. Everything said to go for it in that situation. Eberflus opted to kick the field goal. It was calling tight end screens to Cole Kmet on 3rd and long situations. Then came the pivotal call of the game. Trailing 20-12 with 3:15 to play, the Bears face 4th and 2 from their own 45.
Eberflus elected to punt.
The defense managed to force a punt themselves, but then Velus Jones muffed the return. New York recovered and ran out most of the clock. There is no getting around it. Eberflus coached not to lose, and he lost. It was a game that reminds many Bears fans too much of Lovie Smith during his run with the organization.
Velus Jones muffs the punt and the Giants recover pic.twitter.com/oJjYRgFfBP
— Main Team (@MainTeamSports2) October 2, 2022
Matt Eberflus doesn’t have the team for this coaching style.
His defense isn’t good enough to consistently get stops, and his offense isn’t good enough to score consistently whenever punts or turnovers are forced. In these situations, being aggressive is the only way to win games. Eberflus wasn’t willing to do that. Part of it may be his lack of trust in his personnel. That is fair. The Bears’ offense was atrocious all day again. They couldn’t sustain drives, and they were clearly overmatched at times.
Matt Eberflus was content playing a close, ugly game in hopes they might be able to steal it at the end. Sadly, he missed his opportunities to flip the script in his favor. The big question is whether this personality trait is permanent or if he’ll learn from such mistakes and be willing to take more risks in the future. Either way, the man can’t escape criticism for this one.