Before the Bears fired Matt Eberflus, frustrations boiled over in post-game locker room on Thanksgiving

LAKE FOREST – It was a familiar feeling. That’s what made it so painful.

When the Chicago Bears ran out of time Thursday against the Detroit Lions, the worst part was it felt like this team had been here before.

After losing so many close games in recent weeks, the players were fed up. There was the Hail Mary in Washington. The blocked field goal against Green Bay. An overtime loss to the Vikings.

And now this.

“The same thing happened the week before against Minnesota,” defensive end DeMarcus Walker said of the vibe in the locker room after the game. “I was pissed. You know what I’m saying?”

Head coach Matt Eberflus' message was no longer resonating with his players. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson reportedly cut off Eberflus' post-game comments to the team and went on a rant.

“If anybody knows me, they know I’m a very outspoken person and that when Jaylon gets to a certain point, he’s going to express how he feels,” Johnson said this week on his weekly radio appearance at 670 The Score.

Less than 24 hours later, the Bears fired Eberflus and promoted Thomas Brown to interim head coach. With those feeling permeating the locker room, the Bears probably had no choice but to move on from Eberflus.

On Wednesday, the Bears held their first practice with Brown running the show. Speaking for the first time since Eberflus was fired, quarterback Caleb Williams expressed frustration that this season has come to this.

He also said that he understood how Johnson felt in that moment during the post-game locker room.

“I’ve walked in and I’ve said things out of frustration, feeling like we should’ve won that game, feeling like we should’ve done this or that,” Williams said. “At that point, yes, I will say that this game is an emotional game, it’s a tough game, it’s tough to win games.”

Walker, an outspoken veteran defensive end, was quite frank. Yes, he expected a change to be made after the Lions game. From the outside looking in, the move felt inevitable.

It seems the Bears players were thinking it too.

“You just look at the whole turnaround, how everything had been going, we just knew some changes were going to be made,” Walker said.

The Bears have lost six consecutive game after starting out 4-2. The team is now 4-8. While they’re technically not eliminated from the playoffs, the Bears would likely need to win their final five games to have any hope.

With our record at this point, I don’t know if anything has gone well, to be honest with you."

—  TJ Edwards, Bears linebacker

“With our record at this point, I don’t know if anything has gone well, to be honest with you,” linebacker TJ Edwards said.

In his introductory news conference on Monday, Brown talked about “no more divisions” within the locker room. The Bears are working to come together and unify under Brown. The 38-year-old coach brings a different energy to the room.

Brown said he reached out to each and every player individually over the weekend to express his excitement for these final five games. Brown also said that Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay, one of his coaching mentors, reached out to him and the two coaches spoke over the phone.

The message from McVay wasn’t about X’s and O’s. It was more about being consistent for the players and letting his personality shine when he’s in front of the room.

“I’m going to be myself in every room I walk in,” Brown said.

This team has five games remaining. It starts Sunday with a matchup against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Even with the playoffs likely out of reach, Bears fans will still be tuning in to see how the rookie quarterback fares. The most important thing is that the No. 1 overall draft pick continues to show promise.

Williams said he looks at all of these changes and the adversity he has faced as a good thing, in a way.

“It is a stepping stone, actually, with my development,” Williams said. “I think down the line I’ll have different [offensive coordinators] or different head coaches or whatever the case may be. And so being able to handle it my first year, handle a new playbook, handle all these different changes, handle all of this, I think it definitely will help the development instead of hurting it.”