The Chicago Bears have experienced nose dives before in a season. However, this most recent one feels different because of how fast it happened. On October 13th, things were great. The Bears had just thumped the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, reaching the bye week at 4-2. A month later, they were humbled 19-3 by the lowly New England Patriots at home to reach 4-5. Shane Waldron has been fired as offensive coordinator. Caleb Williams looks broken at quarterback. Players are openly speaking out against the team’s entire operation. All of it falls at the feet of head coach Matt Eberflus.

So what the hell happened? How did it go so wrong, so fast for this team? Mike Sando of The Athletic reached out to high-level executives around the league to gauge their thoughts. One of them had a direct answer on the Eberflus situation. He believes that the head coach lost the locker room because of his handling of the Hail Mary in Washington.

“Their offense is so bad,” an exec from another team said. “Eberflus is already on the edge because of his answer on the Hail Mary (touchdown allowed against Washington). He is going to have to act on Waldron to take some of the heat off, or they could all be swept out.”

Everybody has the memory burned in their brains.

With 25 seconds left, the Bears went ahead 15-13. One stop would give them a thrilling comeback win. Then, Eberflus made two crucial mistakes. He called a soft coverage on the second-to-last play, handing the Commanders a free 13 yards to give Jayden Daniels a shot at the end. Then he refused to call a timeout when it was clear cornerback Tyrique Stevenson wasn’t paying attention on the Hail Mary play. However, that wasn’t what turned the guys against him. Eberflus managed that when he refused to acknowledge he made a mistake on the play before the final pass.

“You’re defending touchdown there. And them throwing the ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever that is, doesn’t really matter. It’s always going to come down to that last play.”

Matt Eberflus helped cost them the game and didn’t own up to it.

Keep in mind that multiple defenders admitted after the game they urged Eberflus to call tighter coverage on that play, knowing a first down would’ve put Washington in Hail Mary range. The head coach didn’t listen. His lack of awareness of what was happening with Stevenson must’ve made it clear to them that Eberflus had no clue what he was doing. That was when players started speaking out more. Energy on and off the field vanished. Guys refused to deny the head coach had lost the locker room.

Things are spiraling. Matt Eberflus is scrambling for solutions. Firing the offensive coordinator is every head coach’s obvious survival move when they know the ship is sinking. It’s pure desperation. None of it really matters. The odds of him being able to get guys to buy in again are almost non-existent. Once you lose them, there is no getting them back. Players lost a lot of respect for Eberflus on that evening in Washington. He is almost sure to lament that mistake once he’s fired in January.