Matt Eberflus may not be able to control injuries or talent as a head coach, but one thing he should always be counted on for is effort. That is his job: to motivate the players and get them to give 100% on every snap during games. It is the first letter of his famous H.I.T.S principle: hustle. That hasn’t been an issue for most of the past two years. Players have given their best during games, flying to the football and running their routes with urgency. However, one person has noticed a troubling shift.
Patrick Mannelly was in the NFL for almost two decades and was arguably the greatest long-snapper of his generation. He knows what signs to look for when a team is struggling. During last week’s game in Arizona against the Cardinals, Mannelly noticed something alarming. on the very first play of the game—a sign that Eberflus might be losing the locker room. He explained on 670 The Score.
Here is the play in question. It is the opening kickoff. The guilty party is #45 on the left side of the screen, linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga. Mannelly is correct. He doesn’t even start running towards the end zone. He turns and starts walking toward the sideline.
Little details like that paint a bad picture of Matt Eberflus.
It might not get the same media frenzy as D.J. Moore walking off the field in the middle of a play, but it still looks just as bad. That is a prominent sign players weren’t engaged. They weren’t motivated and 100% focused on the game. After the subsequent 29-9 loss, Caleb Williams admitted that the guys still hadn’t moved past the heartbreaking Hail Mary defeat in Washington. However, that alone doesn’t explain this. Chicago has suffered brutal defeats under Eberflus before, but they still came back with a similar effort the following week.
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This is the first indication that guys might be mentally checking out. It’s unclear what may have caused this sudden shift. Perhaps it was the realization that Matt Eberflus hurts their chances of winning close games more than it helps them. After all, he’s 3-18 on the road, 6-19 against teams with .500 or better records, and has four distinct 4th quarter collapses in which the Bears’ win percentage was above 90. The Washington game was the latest and most glaring example. We’ll see if the New England game exhibits similar symptoms.
