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The Chicago Bears have long been a dumpster fire, and that continued on Thanksgiving Day. Now-fired head coach Matt Eberflus embarrassed the franchise even further with terrible game management.
On an average NFL Sunday, if you’re not one of the nationally-televised games, a few million people may be watching. But, on Thanksgiving Day, viewership is always high, and the Bears embarrassed themselves in front of a record amount of people.
First off, let’s review what happened. The Bears fought back from a 16-0 deficit to put themselves in position to tie or take the lead on the final drive of regulation due to some great play by Caleb Williams. Then, this happened.
"I can't believe they didn't take a timeout!"
Lions win in a CRAZY finish over the Bears 😮 pic.twitter.com/iLqZLMKpDh
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 28, 2024
Yeah, that’s an unforgivable mistake while Matt Eberflus. Yes, Caleb Williams could’ve handled the situation a bit better. But, ultimately, that’s on the head coach.
That resulted in a sixth straight loss for the Bears, and Eberflus was fired one day later. Unfortunately for him, a recrd number of people watched his career-defining mistake. Here’s Pro Football Talk with more.
The early Thanksgiving window featuring the Lions always performed well not because of the Lions but because it was football, it was on TV, and there was nothing else on. Now that the Lions have transmogrified into a powerhouse, even more are flocking to watch Detroit play on Turkey Day.
Per the NFL, the CBS broadcast of Bears-Lions averaged 37.5 million viewers. That’s the most ever in the opening window on Thanksgiving. It was an 11-percent increase over last year’s Packers-Lions game on Thanksgiving.
That’s a lot of people to watch one of the most embarrassing moments of your entire life.