The Bears finally did it! They finally fired Matt Eberflus. This is the first time in the Bears' hundred-plus year history that they fired a head coach during a season. If you ask me, this is long overdue.

Even back in the preseason and early in the regular season, when the Bears were looking pretty good, I was skeptical of the coaching staff. I was surprised that Eberflus survived last year. Back when everyone thought the Bears were tanking the 2023 in order to draft Caleb Williams, I was insistent that tanking and retaining Eberflus would be a bad idea. I'm not going to re-hash that entire rant, but the core thesis is that it is impossible to tell if a team or coaching staff is tanking on purpose, or if they are just bad. In the case of Eberflus and his coaching staff, it looks like they were just bad.

I hate to say this, but I told you so!

Matt Eberflus was fired after multiple controversial losses.

This firing comes on the heels of a heartbreaking loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving day, in which the Bears mis-managed the clock at the end of the game and forfeited their opportunity to stop the clock and kick a game-tying field goal in the final seconds. This capped a 6-game loosing streak in which the Bears gave up a Hail Mary on the final play against the Commanders, and also mis-managed the clock in other games, with an opportunity to tie or win.

The Chicago Bears have seen a turnaround the past few weeks. The Bears started the regular season 1-2, and looked like they might be repeating the same disastrous mistakes that they made with both Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields. I have not liked Matt Eberflus or his coaching staff these past couple years, and I was hoping that the Bears would look for a new head coach. I feared that when the Bears drafted Caleb Williams, they had drafted a potentially elite quarterback in the last gasp of a lame duck year for the coaching staff. I feared that coaching staff would stunt Williams' development with poor coaching and play-calling. Williams did not look very impressive in the preseason (the backups sure did, though), and he struggled the first few weeks behind awful pass protection, an un-reliable rushing game, and play-calling that failed to put him in situations in which he could succeed and build confidence.

Those days feel like ancient history though. The Bears have now won 3 straight, going into their bye week. Not only are they winning, but they are winning decisively, and looking like a well-rounded powerhouse. Williams is in the top 15 in both passing yards and passing TD. The offense is scoring over 30 points per game in its wins, and the defense is giving up an average of less than 17 points per game. At the same time, they have scores on special teams, and rookie punter Tory Taylor is looking like an instant all-pro.

Photo credit: total apex sports.

Punter Tory Taylor is making life very easy for the defense.

Things seem to be on track.

But "seem" might be the operative word there. I still have concerns.

Those 3 wins came against some of the worst teams in the NFL this year. All 4 of the teams the Bears beat have 1 win each through 6 weeks. In fact, the only 1-win teams that the Bears haven't beat yet are the Patriots and Browns (thought the Bears will have a shot at the Patriots next month). The Texans are the only good team that the Bears have played so far, and they lost a frustrating match against a mediocre Colts team. The good news is that the Bears were at least competitive in those 2 losses, losing both games by a single score.

In any case, the Bears have shown that they can beat up on bad teams, but they have yet to show that they can truly win against Playoff-caliber teams. And that's worrisome, because all of the NFC North is looking like potential playoff teams this year! They will get a chance to prove themselves after their bye, when they will go on the road to play the NFC East-leading Washington Commanders. Then they will have a couple more cupcake games against the Cardinals and Patriots, before starting a brutal gauntlet of a schedule that includes all of their NFC North divisional games, as well as road matchups against the 49ers and a home game against the Seahawks. The Vikings (in particular) are one of the surprise success stories of the league so far, as they remain unbeaten through 6 weeks (5 wins because they already had their bye).

The Bears could very well go into divisional play with a record of 6-3 (or even 7-2), but they will need to at least split those divisional games, and win at least 1 of the non-divisional games against the 49ers or Seahawks, if they want a shot at a wildcard playoff berth. And honestly, I'm not yet convinced that they can do that.