LANDOVER, Md. — Three hundred and forty-six days after their last win, the Bears got a reprieve Thursday night.
It came after fits and starts, with a fullback carrying the ball for most of the second half because three running backs were hurt; the defense coming close to blowing another big lead; and a banged-up roster limping to the final gun. But it was a reprieve nonetheless — the final score of 40-20 belying the second half tug-of-war.
The Bears’ franchise-worst 14 game losing streak is over. The questions surrounding them, though, won’t go away any time soon.
The victory does more than give the Bears their first happy flight home since Oct. 24. It eliminates the possibility, however remote it was in the first place, that coach Matt Eberflus would be fired during the team’s 10-day “mini-bye” before their game against the Vikings.
When Eberflus was asked this week whether he felt supported by his bosses, it set a speed record, even by Halas Hall standards: one year plus four games as a head coach — and a franchise record 14 consecutive losses — to feel the pressure.
The fact the question had to be asked tells you all you need to know about the 2023 Bears.
Eberflus has the worst record of any coach in franchise history. His explanation for a series of increasingly controversial turns have lacked clarity and dynamism. A team that finished dead last in 2022 somehow managed to be disappointing.
Thursday, he walked into a winning locker room.
“It’s fun because you get to see the smiles and the joy from their hard work …” Eberflus said. “We’ve gone through some adversity but we’ve learned lessons from that adversity. Those things harden you.”
One game won’t change that trajectory. Nor will two or three.
A season in which the Bears were expecting a leap from quarterback Justin Fields and a bounce back from a three-win season can’t be measured in baby steps. And Thursday night’s win — against a Commanders team that was allowing 30 points per game — was the definition of a baby step.
Eberflus has broken the Bears’ 17-game season into four “quarters,” with the first five games constituting the first quarter. Each week of the first quarter of the season was exhausting. The next normal game week the Bears have will be their first.
When general manager Ryan Poles has already felt obligated to give a press conference to defend both Fields and Eberflus, the Bears hadn’t yet played their third game.
Defensive coordinator Alan Williams left Halas Hall for what the team called personal reasons in Week 2. The next week, he resigned, though sources confirmed that he left after inappropriate but not illegal behavior. Last week, receiver Chase Claypool maintained the Bears weren’t using him properly, so the team told him to stay home from Sunday’s game. Monday, they told him not to come back to Halas Hall, either.
Along the way, Fields said coaching was affecting his ability to play fast and later scolded the media for claiming he was taken out of context. The team blew a 21-point lead to the Broncos, who were coming off a game in which they gave up 70 points. Eberflus decided to go for it on fourth-and-inches in a tied game late in the fourth quarter, not wanting to put the game on his defense. The person in charge of that unit: Eberflus himself, who replaced Williams on the fly.
The Bears were spanked by the rival Packers despite Aaron Rodgers no longer wearing green and yellow.
The Bears’ weekend break comes on the heels of a tumultuous first five weeks and offers an opportunity for more soul-searching. But no changes at the top.
“I’m sure it’s a weight off (Eberflus’) shoulders, with everything that’s going on with our team,” receiver Darnell Mooney said. “I definitely feel he’s in good spirits right now, with happiness, after just getting a win.”
