Hammond: Matt Eberflus’ clock had run out, the Chicago Bears had no choice but to move on

It was 9:01 and the Chicago Bears had yet to send out a Zoom link to members of the media for head coach Matt Eberflus’ regularly scheduled 9 a.m. day-after debrief.

When the link finally did come through and the camera turned on, there was Eberflus. The 54-year-old coach prepared to answer questions about another dubious loss during Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day game against the Detroit Lions.

Eberflus sat at a desk and answered questions for nine minutes before the team wrapped it up. He told the world that he fully expected to prepare his team for the San Francisco 49ers next week.

About two hours later, the head coach was fired by general manager Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren. Why the team trotted Eberflus out there just hours before canning him will remain a mystery, but it’s a fitting end for this coach, whose team was never very good at clock management.

Bears fans know what happened in Thursday’s 23-20 loss to Detroit. Everybody knows what happened. It was broadcast across the nation on the NFL’s biggest viewership day outside of the playoffs.

Eberflus and the Bears failed to call a timeout as the final 32 seconds ticked off the clock. The Bears ran one final play as time expired, and they left Detroit with a sixth straight loss and one timeout still in their back pocket.

The head coach was getting skewered by fans, former NFL players and the media alike. It wasn’t just fake-name social media profiles with no photos. The heat was coming from the NFL establishment. It was coming from real football people everywhere because everybody who loves football was watching this game.

NFL legend J.J. Watt: “Literal coaching malpractice.”

Two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Jimmy Johnson: “In 70 years of coaching at all three levels, I’ve never seen dysfunction that cost the team an opportunity to win the game.”

MVP quarterback Matt Ryan: “That’s a massive, massive fail by Matt Eberflus.”

That’s a massive, massive fail by Matt Eberflus.”

—  Matt Ryan, former MVP quarterback

The Bears were the laughingstock of the NFL on a national holiday. The hits just kept coming as this season wore on. To recap what has been an unforgettable (in a bad way) month:

• Oct. 27: Hail Mary loss as time expired vs. Washington
• Nov. 10: three-point effort against three-win New England
• Nov. 17: blocked field goal as time expired vs. Green Bay
• Nov. 24: overtime loss vs. Minnesota
• Nov. 28: game-management debacle in Detroit

The Bears were making the same mistakes again and again.

They had a field goal blocked at the buzzer against Green Bay, then the Vikings blocked their next field goal try from nearly the same exact spot a week later. Eberflus ran out the final seconds against Green Bay instead of trying to draw closer for his kicker, then on Thursday he watched the clock tick away the final 32 seconds.

The Bears couldn’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

For Poles and Warren, there was no other option. The Bears had never fired a head coach during a season, but there was no way this organization could stick to the status quo after what happened Thursday.

Warren’s arrival was supposed to signal a change: This time, things are different. If the Bears didn’t move on from Eberflus this weekend, that entire premise would be a sham.

As he sat on his morning Zoom call Friday, Eberflus started talking about the film review, the details, the operation and all the coaching buzzwords he tends to use. The prevailing question was not: Why is he still the coach? No, the question was: Why are the Bears putting this man through this?

The clock had been ticking on the Eberflus era for a while. It was the final minute of the fourth quarter.

It was time to let the clock run out.