Fans, analysts react to Bears firing head coach Matt Eberflus; "He kind of sealed his fate"
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some Bears fans are shocked, others said it took too long after the team fired head coach Matt Eberflus on Friday, on the heels of a six-game losing streak.
Eberflus is the first Bears coach to be fired in the middle of a season, and the news apparently came as a surprise to the coach, who was allowed to hold his regular day-after-a-game press conference Friday morning after their gut-wrenching loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving.
The embarrassing loss featured an inexplicable decision by Eberflus not to call a timeout after quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked with 32 seconds left on the clock, and the offense scrambled to get their final play off with only 6 seconds left, ending in an incomplete pass as time expired.
Gabe Ramirez, host of 670 The Score, said Eberflus left Bears general manager Ryan Poles with no choice but to fire him, given his management of the team over their six-game losing streak.
"When you're the head coach of the Chicago Bears, that responsibility is to be a game manager and to put this team in the best position to win, and unfortunately he just hasn't done that over the last couple of weeks, and he kind of sealed his fate," he said.
Now offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will step in as the interim head coach for the rest of the season.
"Hopefully they can get some wins, because Caleb William needs some wins in order to build that confidence in that rookie quarterback," Ramirez said. "The Bears are close."
Fans and sports analysts hope changing head coaches will help get the Bears back to the Super Bowl in the near future.
"I didn't think they would fire a manager or a head coach in the middle of the season. So it's cool, it's serious," Bears fan Jeff Rynberk said.
"That was my thought. Get rid of him. He's never done anything to make you want to say stay, and especially what they did at the end of the game. That was ridiculous," Guy Quenzler said.
Brown's first test as head coach will be on Dec. 8 against the defending NFC champion 49ers in San Francisco, which could help him get a leg up on the full-time head coaching job if the Bears can finally end their losing streak.