Commanders coach Ron Rivera was talking about his own team following a 31-point loss to the Bills in Week 3 and a three-point loss to the Eagles on Sunday. What he concluded Monday, though, absolutely has to resonate even louder inside Halas Hall than in suburban Washington, D.C.
“You’re going to get your butt kicked,” said Rivera, who will coach his 195th career game Thursday night when the Commanders host the Bears. “How you respond, that tells everybody whether you’re worth a crap or not.”
That — right down to the blunt Chicago phrasing — is the question surrounding Bears coach Matt Eberflus. He’s lost 14 straight games, the longest skid in franchise history and the longest active streak in the NFL. He’s had 13 opportunities to respond — and has only lost again.
If the Bears fail to get off the mat against the Commanders, they’ll have 10 more days to think about the skid — or, perhaps, for someone to demand change.
After gutting their roster last year, the Bears were expected to be competitive this season. Instead, they’re one of two winless teams. Eberflus is 3-18 as a head coach, the worst mark in franchise history.
The McCaskey family has never fired a coach midseason. Doing so this season would be as complicated as it is unprecedented, given the Bears don’t have a defensive coordinator and their offensive coordinator has called one above-average game all season. It’s also unclear what promoting another first-time head coach — the Bears have no one on staff with such experience — to replace their first-time head coach in the middle of season would accomplish, short of a city-wide catharsis. New president/CEO Kevin Warren, though, has never been one to tolerate inertia.
Wednesday, Eberflus acknowledged the outside pressure.
“I’ve been doing this 32 years, so I understand the business,” Eberflus said. “But I understand that to do it right, you’ve got to focus on your job, and you’ve got to focus on right here, right now.
“So, you can think about a lot of different things that’s going to do nobody good. (Or) you can focus on your job and where your feet are right now. Our sole focus is on Washington.”
Eberflus claimed the Bears “took a big step in the right direction last week” — a three-point loss in which he decided to go for it on fourth-and-inches rather than kick a go-ahead field goal — and have “got to take another big step this week” against the Commanders.
Asked if he’s received assurances from Bears brass that they’re making progress, Eberflus said he felt supported.
“I haven’t talked to anybody about any of those things,” he said. “I feel the support and we’re just focused on Washington.”
Eberflus said he knew the challenge of this season would be in bringing a “bunch of new guys” together. He said the Bears were still “in the process of that” — a spurious claim, given the team has already participated in four regular season games, three exhibitions, training camp and offseason practices.
The season isn’t in its infancy any more, and the Bears can’t keep acting like it is. After Thursday’s game, they’ll be more than a quarter of the way through the year. Winning it would snap a skid that long ago become a league-wide embarrassment. Lose, and the pressure surrounding Eberflus will only grow more powerful.
Eberflus said the slump has made him lock in.
“More focused, more determined,” he said. “Making sure that we’re focused and we’re laser-like in terms of our preparation.
“That’s all I know. That’s all you can do. You can do it one practice at a time, one rep at a time, and it’ll crack. That’s in our preparation. That’s in our focus. And that’s in our determination.”
