Eberflus provides injury updates, talks offensive struggles after heartbreaking loss |
WASHINGTON D.C. - There is a lot to unpack from the Chicago Bears’ 18-15 loss to the Washington Commanders. It took until 54 seconds left in the third quarter for Chicago to score any points. They had lost a fumble on Washington’s one-yard-line on a trick play to an offensive lineman. Despite that, the Bears had the lead with under 20 seconds left in the game. On a 52-yard hail mary, Chicago lost their third game of the season.
There were also several injuries throughout the game. “With all the offensive linemen that we had in and out of there, I thought the guys battled in there. The pocket was firmer in the second half (which) was good. We drove the field twice at the end and I know there’s going to be a lot of questions about the Doug Kramer play. Again, I got to look at the handoff. That was one of our one-yard plays (in) our goal line package. We got to look at the operation of that. We have three or four of those,” head coach Matt Eberflus said. “Obviously, the defense’s response to that was excellent. Go three and out, force a punt, we get it back to midfield and then our offense converts a couple times on third down, get them down there and first and goal on the one after the DPI. That’s a run. He has the option to throw the fade if he likes the matchup, so that’s what he did … and then we scored on the second one and then they had those plays at the end and it comes down to that last play.” Offensive linemen Braxton Jones, Teven Jenkins and Bill Murray are all injured, as well as edge rusher Montez Sweat. Sweat’s absence was felt on the hail mary. Chicago only rushed three players. Washington’s rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, had almost 13 seconds to throw the ball. If Sweat was out there, he most likely would not have had that amount of time. Eberflus did not comment on the severity of any of these injuries, so the availability of these players for Sun. Nov. 3 against Arizona Cardinals (3:05 p.m. / CBS) is in question. “(Jones has a) knee (injury),” Eberflus said. “Teven (has) a knee (injury) and Bill Murray (has a pectoral injury) and then (edge rusher Montez Sweat) is a shin.” After multiple games where the offense seemed to be getting on track, things fell off the rails in this game. While rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was only sacked twice, a feat for an offensive line that has given up at least three sacks in five games this season, he could not seem to find a rhythm. His completion percentage of 41.7 was his lowest in a game thus far in his NFL career. He only had 131 passing yards, his lowest since the season opener, and did not throw a touchdown in this game. Williams had at least one passing touchdown in the last four games before this contest. “I thought he got off (the progressions) a little bit. I have to look at it,” Eberflus said. “Again, it could be guys that were covered or got pressure in his face, whatever that might be. But again, that’s an everybody thing. That’s a protection thing. That’s a route-running thing and that’s a quarterback thing.” It was not just Williams. The offense as a whole could not get anything going for most of the game. In the first quarter, they only had 28 yards. In the second quarter, they went up to 52 yards in total offense. Having only 80 yards in total offense in a half is not a recipe to win games. “Sometimes when you have those days, you just got to make sure you keep finding answers. Some of the answers could have been getting the ball to our tight ends and running backs as I look at the stat sheet. I thought we were trying to do that,” Eberflus said. “They did pressure with their linebackers. We knew they were going to do some of those. We thought those were effective for them. So, we got to do a better job handling those. But, again, it’s always about just working to the next series and finding answers and we got to do a better job of that.”
