Eberflus says Waldron will continue calling offensive plays |
CHICAGO—The Chicago Bears looked poor on both sides of the ball in their 20-point loss against the Arizona Cardinals this past Sunday.
Offensively, Chicago failed to score a touchdown the entire game while they allowed Arizona to score 29 points, the most they have scored since week two. “I thought that defensively, started out well with a couple three-and-outs. That was really good to see,” head coach Matt Eberflus said. “I don’t think we stopped the run very well. Certainly in that third quarter when we needed to, they had that long drive in the third quarter to exhaust a bunch of time off there and so, we need to do a better job there in terms of the overall run defense and limiting those explosives as we go forward and that’s where everything starts.” Chicago’s loss against the Cardinals marked the third time this season that rookie quarterback Caleb Williams had a completion percentage under 55 percent. It also marked the sixth game in which Williams had under 250 passing yards. Furthermore, tight end Cole Kmet has only had one target in the past two games, which is inexcusable for a veteran player of his caliber. “Offensively, when we get the ball into the scoring zone there early on like we did, we got to do a good job of punching that in for touchdowns. We got to really look at the negative plays that we have on some of those drives that be it by penalty or sack and then really just doing a good job of keeping that in there and again, that’s the coaches responsibilities to be able to our guys in position and that starts with me and we got to do a really good job with that,” Eberflus said. “We’re looking (at) exactly what we need to improve on and that to me starts with the run game on offense and defense and that to me, everything falls off of that. We have to do a really good job of establishing that and that’s where you get your play action passes and that’s where you get your play action screens and putting yourselves in a good position to execute on third down if you get to that and so, that’s what we’re taking a hard look at today among other things.” Running back D’Andre Swift had been hot the last four games with over 100 scrimmage yards and a touchdown in each of those contests. So, it was surprising to see him average only 3.2 yards per carry and finish the game against Arizona. His total scrimmage yards of 82 were his lowest since week three against the Indianapolis Colts. On the other side of the ball, Chicago’s defense allowed over 200 rushing yards to the Cardinals in addition to three rushing touchdowns. One of those was a 53-yard touchdown by Emari Demercado right before the end of the first half. Eberflus does not seem to be all that concerned about the run game and seems to lack a sense of urgency. “Whenever you lose two in a row in the NFL, there’s always a heightened sense of urgency because you have to get that win column back and that was no different than earlier in the year, we had lost a couple in a row and it’s really the same. We have to find answers and find solutions to where we are right now,” Eberflus said. “We move in the right direction for three weeks and then the last couple, we got to make sure that we have to find answers right now moving into this week and again, like I said, we don’t have a lot of time. We got less than 48 hours before we practice. We got to do a good job of really, before the players get back in the building, we got to do a good job of finding those answers.” In light of the offensive struggles, some wondered whether offensive coordinator Shane Waldron would continue to call the offensive plays. Eberflus confirmed he would be and maintained that the team continues to stay together despite the loss. “We’re connected. We’re staying together. We’re doing a good job of finding answers,” Eberflus said. “We (have) to come up with a plan and then the process to practice those and then implement those during the course of the week and then execute those on Sunday. Again, it was a disappointing loss (Sunday) and we have to do a good job of finding answers to improve this week.”
