You Can Say That Again

Bears’ soon-to-be-ex head coach Mickey Eberflus told reporters after his team’s 30-27 loss to the Vikings in overtime yesterday, “We’ve got to coach better down the stretch. It’s an everybody thing.” [today’s Tribune] Eberflus is right on that, if nothing else. Forget about Cairo Santos having another long field goal blocked or a missed two-point conversion. Here’s the play that shows just how bad a coach Eberflus is. It happened with 6:32 left in the game and Minnesota up by eight. Vikings’ quarterback Sam Darnold went out of the game with a leg injury, to be replaced by backup Nick Mullens. Guess who hadn’t thrown a pass all season? Yup, Mullens, who faced third-and-thirteen at the Minnesota 27. Guess who completed a pass for fourteen yards and a first down? Darnold immediately returned and led the offense downfield for a field goal, a drive that took 5:26 off the clock. Where was the pass rush? As soon as I see the backup coming in for what’s an obvious passing situation, I’m throwing everything and everybody at him. Mickey and the boys apparently felt otherwise. With 1:56 remaining in the game and no timeouts left, qb Caleb Williams engineered a touchdown, two-point conversion and a field goal—after a successful onside kick, no less—to tie the game and send it into overtime. Williams is looking more and more like the future of the franchise. Mickey and the boys, not so much.