LAKE FOREST, Ill. (670 The Score) – Bears general manager Ryan Poles walked through the locker room last Thursday in Detroit and realized he had only one choice in how to move forward.
Poles felt the “pulse” of his Bears players after the team's 23-20 loss to the Lions at Ford Field, a setback in which head coach Matt Eberflus' poor clock management in the final minute cost his team a chance to tie the game. Poles knew he had to make a change, and he did by firing Eberflus on Friday morning as the Bears have dropped to 4-8 and are riding a six-game losing streak.
"At the end of the day, we just came up short too many times," Poles said Monday at Halas Hall. "And we had to make a change.
"Everyone was frustrated. I saw frustration.”
The firing of Eberflus marked the first time in Bears history that the franchise dismissed a head coach in the middle of a season. It also came 17 days after offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was fired.
In his final game on the sideline for the Bears on Thursday, Eberflus allowed the clock to run down from 32 seconds to six seconds without calling the team’s final timeout after rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked at the Lions’ 41-yard line on second down. When the Bears finally got the snap off, Williams threw an incompletion deep downfield as the clock expired, with the botched clock management costing them a chance at a game-tying field-goal attempt.
In the Bears’ ongoing six-game losing streak, four of the contests came down to the final play. Eberflus was 14-32 in his Bears tenure, including 5-19 in one-score games, the worst mark of any active head coach in the NFL.
Eberflus' firing was officially announced by the Bears just prior to noon CT on Friday, nearly three hours after the team allowed him to hold a previously scheduled 9 a.m. media session.
At the time Eberflus met the media, Bears management was conducting a meeting that resulted in Eberflus' dismissal. The organization’s decision to have Eberflus speak publicly just before he was fired drew widespread criticism.
"In retrospect, could we have done it better? Yes," Bears president Kevin Warren said. "And I'll be the first one to raise my hand.
"But we had not reached a decision.”
The Bears have named offensive coordinator Thomas Brown as their interim head coach. The team will conduct a formal search for its next head coach at the conclusion of the regular season.
Poles will be the "point person" in that search, Warren said.
The Bears (4-8) will visit the San Francisco 49ers (5-7) on Sunday.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.