A quick recap if you haven’t seen the presser, but essentially Eberflus says that there was a more conservative play to be made on 3rd down and that it falls on Justin and the offense. Many fans find his lack of accountability for the conservative runs up the middle on 1st/2nd down confusing. So here are my thoughts. Let me know what you think.

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It’s actually incredibly fitting for a play like that to have so large an impact on this game and here’s why. It’s evident that conservative playcalling got the defense into trouble and lost the Bears the game in the 4th. And in his last presser, you seem to have Eberflus doubling down on the conservative runs on first and second down.

But then we have Justin, who everyone knows is a big game hunter. He saw an opportunity, and took the shot, executed his part of the play perfectly, but the receiver misplayed it. Now, because it didn’t work out, that’s supposed to be the scapegoat in Eberflus’s mind because it wasn’t the conservative, ‘higher probability’ play.

This is just one small example of the larger issue I think we’re seeing here. This front office and coaching staff are neutering players. Square peg/round holing players trying to get them to fit a scheme and not play to their strengths.

Adam Hoge, on CHGO today talked about how he saw Getsy talking to fields before that drive. And he basically said, and I agree, that that conversation went one of two ways. The bad and most likely way, “Justin go out there and just try to get a first down, no turnovers.”

Or the good way, “go out there and be you, let it rip.” That would mirror Justin’s character that we heard earlier in the year of just being himself and going out and playing. But time and time again we see that this coaching staff are afraid to take the chances at the right moments and it’s holding this team back, and on top of that Eberflus won’t take accountability for it either.

It’s not hard to say, “Justin threw a great ball, and Tyler has got to catch that, but I have faith in both those guys and that’s why we did it, but at the end of the day that’s on me. We could have been more conservative but I’m out here trying to win.”

One sentence and you’d never bat an eye at the offensive play-calling in that series, but this staff just can’t help themselves from the lying and misdirection. They’re trying to upkeep a facade of perfection that just doesn’t show on the football field.