On Sunday night, Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus defended the decision to throw two challenge flags. Statistically, Eberflus’ staff is one of the worst in the league at challenging calls on the field.
A terrible challenge by the Chicago Bears
Eberflus whiffed on two critical challenges in the Bears’ 19-13 loss to the Houston Texans. The first challenge came in the first half when Texans receiver Stefon Diggs caught a pass in front of the Bears’ sideline, and more importantly, right in front of Eberflus.
Matt Eberflus challenged a clear catch that happened right in front of him @barstoolchicago pic.twitter.com/CCtlXRg07O
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 16, 2024
The second challenge came in the second half when cornerback Kyler Gordon nearly came up with an interception. However, television replay showed the ball bounced to the turf several times during the play. The missed challenge cost his team a critical timeout to save the clock for the offense’s final drive.
Matt Eberflus has a good process?
During his press conference on Sunday night, Eberflus said the Bears have a “good process” for deciding when to challenge.
We have a good process for that,” Eberflus said. “It’s a little bit different when you can’t see the monitor right away, and it’s a critical play like a third down or a takeaway. So we do put a little more weight on those, but we have a good process.”
Eberflus said his staff has been “clean” on deciding when to challenge since he took over the gig in 2022.
“We’ve been pretty clean overall since we’ve been here,” Eberflus said. “Those were just situations where we didn’t get a great look at it, and they were critical downs, so we made a decision to do it, and it didn’t work out.”
Eberflus’ staff is one of the worst in the league on challenging
Except Eberflus’ staff hasn’t been “clean” at all on challenges. He’s a messy 2-for-7 on challenges, with five challenges being upheld.
Via Mile High Report, Eberflus came into the 2024 season with a .400 record on challenges, good enough to rank 30th out of 34 head coaches who either were a head coach in 2023 or had prior head coaching experience before taking a new job in 2024.
After missing both challenges on Sunday night, he’s now at .286, which would put him only above Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel for being correct on challenges.
Stop trusting the process, Matt.
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