Matt Eberflus’ time in Chicago may end sooner than expected. As the Bears record a new low with a 19-3 loss against the rebuilding Patriots on Sunday. Their No.1 overall draft pick this season, Caleb Williams, seems to be going nowhere in an offensive line that doesn’t allow any pass to happen. Williams got sacked a whopping nine times as he passed for only 120 yards in Chicago.

It was a day that Bears fans might not want to remember as they found themselves at the bottom of their division. They have now lost two consecutive games where they haven’t scored a single TD. And have only managed to score 27 points within that timeline. This might have led American Columnist David Kaplan to throw shots at the Bears coach when he appeared for a radio interview with ESPN Chicago. When his phone kept cutting out, Kaplan said, “Coach, your cellphone is as bad as the offense right now.” 

Well, it’s true, as the Bears won three in a row before finding themselves in a sinking hole. Even Williams scored 7 TDs and completed 74% of his passes for 687 yards as the Bears looked like a formidable team. However, now they have to rely upon their kicker, Cairo Santos, to score field goals every game. Only then did the Bears manage to put up points on the board.

Their win against the Jaguars in London, where Williams scored 4 TDs, looks like a distant memory right now. In this current slide, Williams has only completed 50.5% of his passes for 468 yards. And that three-game losing streak saw him get sacked for 18 times. Thereby showcasing the weakness of the Bears O-line.

However, Eberflus still said that his QB is strong and knows how to get himself out of this slum. “Caleb’s strong. He’s strong inside. He’s strong outside, He’s strong individual. And he’s been through adversity. And he knows how to do this. He knows how to get through adversity by pulling together.” But how come Williams is able to find the right targets when his offensive line doesn’t offer any protection at all? The Bears are missing Braxton Jones (knee), Kiran Amegadjie (calf), Darnell Wright (knee), Nate Davis (back)and now Teven Jenkins (ankle) from their O-line.

Seeing his team go through such a poor record got Matt Eberflus to finally take some responsibility on his shoulders.

Matt Eberflus takes accountability as Caleb Williams hopes to turn the season around

As Chicago witnessed their team take another loss, there were chants of firing the head coach on Sunday. Losing to other teams may have been alright, but swallowing defeat against the Patriots is a different deal. Coming into the clash, the Patriots had the worst offensive record. They ranked 26th in yards per play allowed, 28th in sacks per pass, and 26th in yards per pass allowed.

And what did the Bears do in response? Well, they only managed 142 yards with just 4.0 yards per pass. It was only the second time in their franchise history that the Bears saw themselves sacked nine times in a game.

This led to Eberflus taking full responsibility for the beating, “I’ll take responsibility for it. The whole thing. The operation of it: offense, defense, kicking. That’s the job of the head coach. So, to me, that’s accountability for everything.” Even their TE Cole Kmet didn’t mince his words to criticize the team’s outing at home, “It was pretty bad. We’ve got a lot that we’ve got to get corrected.”

Watching everyone own up to their mistakes got Caleb Williams to express his thoughts post-defeat, “When we communicate, when we do our job, when I do my job, when, you know, when we’re hitting on cylinders, it’s pretty tough to beat.” But the question is, can the Bears turn it around as they only have a handful of games remaining on their hand? Well, we don’t know, but the NFL is all about surprise and what if the Bears have one for us down the line?