Hit and Reaction: “Funky” Hit Sparks Heated Controversy from Caleb Williams
The Chicago Bears and head coach Matt Eberflus are facing sharp criticism over their late-game failure in Thursday’s loss to the Detroit Lions, and some of the heat coming from inside the building.
After going into halftime of the Thanksgiving matchup trailing 16-0, the Bears surged back in the second half and had a chance to tie or take the lead late in the fourth quarter. Trailing 23-20 under the two-minute warning, the Bears drove deep into Lions’ territory and were well within field-goal range when quarterback Caleb Williams took a sack on second down.
Though there were more than 30 seconds left on the clock after the sack, the Bears were slow to get back to the line and could only get off one final play, a desperate heave toward the endzone from Williams that fell short.
After the game, star wide receiver DJ Moore expressed frustration, saying he didn’t know why the coaching staff chose not to stop the clock as the time was running out on the game.
“I don’t think we huddled, we just got right back on the ball and ran a play,” Moore told reporters after the game. “I don’t know why we ain’t call a timeout.”
Eberflus may have answered Moore’s question. The Bears coach told reporters after the game that their plan was to gain more yards on the third-down play then use the timeout before a field-goal attempt.
“Our hope was, because it was third [down] going into fourth, that we would re-rack that play at 18 seconds, throw it inbounds, get into field goal range and then call the timeout,” Eberflus said. “That’s where it was and that was our decision-making process on that. Again, we were outside the field goal range, so we needed to get a few more yards in there, as close as we can get, and then we were going to call a timeout, and that’s why we held that last timeout.”
Eberflus added that he believes the team handed the situation the right way, though admitted “it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”
