Tag: FTW

Dan Quinn struck down Matt Eberflus’ incorrect stance on Commanders’ pre-Hail Mary play

As usual, Matt Eberflus doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus insists he did nothing wrong to set up the Washington Commanders’ Hail Mary, even though all evidence points to the contrary. (He should take notes from Jaylon Johnson’s quality leadership.)

But beyond Eberflus’ poor coaching on the actual Hail Mary, he insisted that a 13-yard completion to Terry McLaurin right before didn’t “really matter.” Eberflus is so incorrect because this sequence, of course, was absolutely necessary to help put Washington in a position where its Hail Mary attempt was even feasible.

It’s even more telling when Commanders head coach Dan Quinn went as far as to say that the pass was “the one you need.” The difference in quality coaching approach between the two teams couldn’t be more stark:

The Commanders are 6-2 and in pole position for the NFC East division title because Quinn understands every little yard counts. The Bears are 4-3, in firm fourth place in the NFC North, because their coach doesn’t act that way. It couldn’t be more clear.

Jaylon Johnson took the high road to explain Bears’ pitiful Hail Mary defense

Jaylon Johnson is a great Bears leader and an even better teammate.

In the aftermath of a disastrous defeat squeezed out of the jaws of victory, it’s telling how people react to failure.

For example, there’s the Chicago Bears’ Matt Eberflus. The third-year coach put on a late-game disaster class to set up the Washington Commanders’ stunning Hail Mary win. And instead of falling on his sword, Eberflus decided to blame his players for their “execution.” That should tell you everything about him as a coach.

Then there’s Jaylon Johnson. He’s the Bears’ best player, a veritable All-Pro, and arguably the NFL’s top cornerback. Rather than follow Eberflus’ example, the superstar defender decided that the emotional aftermath of a tough defeat was not the time to throw anyone under the bus (Tyrique Stevenson, come on down!) under any circumstances.

Johnson’s explanation about what went wrong after the Bears’ loss says as much:

Man, that’s a great teammate right there. Because even while Johnson says he doesn’t know whose job it was to cover the back of the end zone, there’s a very high likelihood he had already seen the viral video of Stevenson trash-talking Commanders fans. But, because Johnson is mature and secure enough in his status as a star player, he understands it’s better to keep things in-house rather than tearing down a teammate in public.

Take notes, Matt Eberflus. Your best player is an actual leader.

Bears’ Tyrique Stevenson was seen talking trash to Commanders fans before literally setting up Hail Mary

The Bears’ Tyrique Stevenson was so busy talking trash that he forgot his job.

A litany of errors defined the Chicago Bears’ stunning loss to the Washington Commanders after Jayden Daniels’ unreal Hail Mary touchdown pass. They start with Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, who made every possible coaching mistake to create perfect conditions for the play and then declined responsibility for the sequence after the fact.

However, Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson might want to find a way to burn the film of the play before his teammates see it.

As captured by a fan on Twitter, Stevenson was recorded talking trash to Washington supporters in the stands. Stevenson was so absorbed in celebrating a win that wasn’t official yet that he literally missed the snap and the first few seconds of the play. You can see his visible shock that the game is still going on when he turns around.

(Note: This is why you call ANY of your three timeouts, Matt Eberflus.)

And when Stevenson turned around, he was caught scrambling to do anything impactful. While in a fit of clear desperation, the cornerback ended up doing the worst possible thing: tipping the ball to Noah Brown for the game-winner.

In a cruel twist of fate, ESPN’s Benjamin Solak pointed out that Stevenson was probably supposed to shadow Brown and follow him throughout the play. Instead, he let him get behind him, and the rest was history.

I don’t want to pile on Stevenson anymore. Because this young man is about to get it from his Bears teammates and his coaches.

UPDATE: Stevenson appears to have noticed the backlash to the video of him trash-talking mid-Hail Mary. He took to his Twitter to apologize to his Bears teammates and Bears fans, taking accountability for his grave mistake.

Matt Eberflus gutlessly blamed Bears players’ execution instead of himself on Commanders Hail Mary

The Bears’ Matt Eberflus is a pathetic excuse for a leader.

After the Chicago Bears’ stunning loss to the Washington Commanders, thanks to Jayden Daniels’ heroic Hail Mary, you would’ve thought Matt Eberflus might actually take responsibility for his poor late-game coaching decisions.

You would’ve been dead wrong.

To start his postgame press conference, Eberflus discussed the wild final play that led to the Bears’ third loss of 2024. Rather than say he failed to put his players in an optimal position to succeed — a cookie-cutter comment that doesn’t really mean anything but is expected of any leader — Eberflus chalked up the Bears’ failure to … poor execution on the part of his players.

I’m all for holding dudes accountable. But that’s not the time nor the place. You absolutely have to fall on the sword there if you’re Eberflus:

https://twitter.com/_MarcusD3_/status/1850692971282231376

It’s just a terrible look for an ostensible leader of some of the best athletes in the world.

Matt Eberflus’ inexcusable late-game coaching for Bears set up the Commanders’ Hail Mary

Matt Eberflus put on a coaching disasterclass to set up the Commanders’ Hail Mary win.

With how discombobulated they played, the Chicago Bears had no business beating the Washington Commanders on Sunday. Then, led by Caleb Williams, they scored an unanswered 15 points and held a 15-12 lead with just 23 seconds left. In almost every situation, it should’ve been a surefire victory from then on.

Then Chicago head Matt Eberflus’ decision-making reared its ugly head to set up Jayden Daniels’ heroic, game-winning Hail Mary. (Wait, was there a hold?)

First, Eberflus’ mandate around a prevent defense literally gifted Washington a free 13 yards to get closer for a reasonable deep shot. (Why would you ever let them get closer for free?) Then, rather than call any of his three timeouts to organize the Chicago defense and get everyone set up in an optimal way, Eberflus let things lie, setting up ideal circumstances for Daniels to have nearly 13 seconds of time before launching his desperate, game-winning throw.

This was especially problematic because Eberflus had linebacker T.J. Edwards lined up as a quarterback spy (ON A HAIL MARY) while also keeping some of his shorter defenders on the field. The Bears would then only rush three players. That’s not abnormal for a Hail Mary. What is abnormal is that Montez Sweat — Chicago’s best pass-rusher by far — was not on the field. Oh, and the Bears’ players on the field really let someone get behind them on a last-ditch play.

Basically, if Eberflus had used ANY of his timeouts, he would’ve likely prevented the perfect conditions for a Hail Mary.

Eberflus’ reaction on the sideline after the fact almost understates his completely inept failure to prepare his team with the game on the line:

The Bears had no business winning this game. But a heroic effort from their defense and a gutsy finish by their quarterback had them in position to steal it. Then Eberflus’ late-game coaching decisions threw it all away.

Eberflus is now 3-17 on the road in his Bears coaching career. He just might not be built for this.

Aaron Rodgers’ ‘darkness’ comments lamenting the Jets’ 2-6 start were a little on the nose

Aaron Rodgers is in denial about how bad the Jets are.

After some hype and excitement about their first full season with Aaron Rodgers, the disorganized New York Jets are now facing disaster. With their 25-22 defeat to the mostly miserable New England Patriots on Sunday, the Jets are now 2-6. The Jets’ season feels over, barring an unprecedented turnaround over their last nine games,

Well, according to Rodgers, the Jets are already “making peace” with the “darkness.”

Oh, come on, man. After Rodgers’ well-documented episodes with (ahem) darkness of any kind, couldn’t he have used another line to describe his team’s despair?

Saying it like this is a little on the nose for a Jets team that has now lost five games in a row:

The Jets will host an AFC contender, the Houston Texans, next week.

Call it a hunch, but I don’t think Rodgers will be making peace with any sort of darkness, shroud, or shadow, what have you, any time soon.

The Lions’ 52 points on 225 yards of offense wasn’t the most absurd stat of their blowout win

The Lions genuinely enjoyed one of the weirdest NFL wins in decades on Sunday.

I have been following NFL football for nearly two decades. I have never seen what the NFC heavyweight Detroit Lions accomplished on Sunday against the lowly Tennessee Titans.

After Detroit’s 52-14 win was cemented into the scoring books, I’m definitely not alone in that regard.

The Lions scored 52 points and had just 225 yards of offense. That is not a typo. They converted only three third downs on offense, but they somehow scored 50-plus points anyway. That’s because the Lions had nearly 300 combined kick and punt return yards, while punter Jack Fox dominated the field position battle by averaging 60 yards a punt.

Despite doing almost nothing on offense, this was officially the best scoring output for the Lions in decades. Ah, the power of the glorious third phase:

https://twitter.com/LionsPR/status/1850620108890046803

As crazy as this offense-to-point statistic is, it wasn’t even the most unbelievable Detroit outcome of the day. With Jared Goff finishing with less than 100 net passing yards, the Lions officially became the first NFL team to score at least 50 points with almost no passing production since 1955.

Eat your heart out, old-school Chicago Bears:

https://twitter.com/BrettKollmann/status/1850621268707647636

Man. Do you know what the lesson is here? Don’t mess with these Lions.

Ravens’ Rashod Bateman tragically dropped a perfect Lamar Jackson pass after losing it in the sun

The Ravens will never let Rashod Bateman live this brutal drop down.

In many respects, the Baltimore Ravens’ receivers have actually been exemplary this year for reigning MVP Lamar Jackson. But in one particularly important moment against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, Rashod Bateman let Jackson down in a sequence he’ll want to forget with haste.

As the Ravens tried to mount a late comeback on a third-and-14 play in the fourth quarter, Jackson scrambled right to uncork an absolute deep laser toward an open Bateman downfield. In most cases, this should’ve been a sure completion.

There was just one problem: Bateman seemingly lost the pass in the sun as the ball bounced off his facemask for a brutal drop in a big spot:

Oh … my goodness. That’s one of those drops that goes straight to old-school football follies. Bateman should be happy he’s having a great year for the Ravens otherwise because he’s not going to live down this drop any time soon.

Jameis Winston broke the 4th wall in possibly rehearsed pregame interview before his Browns start

Jameis Winston is auditioning for a movie that doesn’t even exist.

Just one week after prominent Cleveland Browns figures like Myles Garrett embarrassed themselves with weird defenses of an injured Deshaun Watson — who once faced more than 20 allegations of sexual misconduct in what the NFL would later characterize as “predatory behavior” — backup Jameis Winston got the start against the rival Baltimore Ravens.

Winston didn’t disappoint when he was as corny as possible during his pregame interview on CBS. Winston broke the fourth wall while delivering random nonsequiturs about believing in himself and his teammates to answer an anodyne, cliche question about how he feels about starting again.

It’s almost as if Winston was auditioning for a role in a movie … that doesn’t even exist:

Why is Winston looking at the camera like that? Why couldn’t he just answer the question in a normal way? What is happening?

So many questions and so few answers.

Aaron Rodgers’ Jets are so disorganized they used all 3 timeouts after running just 10 plays

Aaron Rodgers’ Jets are ridiculously disorganized.

We’re near the midseason mark, and the New York Jets’ first full campaign with Aaron Rodgers is already circling the drain. It’s hard not to think otherwise after seeing how Rodgers hasn’t learned anything of note while recent trade acquisition Davante Adams essentially compared the Jets’ morose vibes to the hapless Las Vegas Raiders.

Sunday’s on-field timeout episode against the New England Patriots showed that Rodgers and the Jets really might be irreparably disorganized.

You see, dearest readers, the Jets used all three of their first-half timeouts … after running just 10 plays … in the first quarter.

Timeout and general clock management can’t get more incompetent than that:

This is REALLY bad.

The Jets blew out the Patriots in the early season. New England remains one of the NFL’s worst teams. If New York can’t win by double digits again, we’ll point to fiascos like this as even more glaring symptoms of a larger team issue.