The Chicago Bears have never fired a head coach in the middle of the season. Ever. In 104 years. It's never happened. There've been plenty of chances to do it, too. Marc Trestman was a disaster, and Matt Nagy was on the hottest of seats in 2020.
Through it all, every failed head coach of the Chicago Bears has been allowed to finish the season. It's considered a way for the coach to save face, which is admirable.
But that shouldn't stop the Bears from considering the termination of Matt Eberflus on Friday if Thursday night's showdown with the Washington Commanders goes sideways.
Yes, the Bears looked better on offense in Week 4, but let's be honest: it was the Denver Broncos. They are the other worst team in the league. Appearing mildly competent against utter incompetence should not save anyone's job.
The Washington Commanders are different. Their fearsome defensive front can maul the Bears' injury-ridden offensive line. They're coached by Ron Rivera, a true defensive guru who can actually design a game plan that takes away his opponent's strengths. They're tied for the seventh-most sacks in the NFL through four games (13). They're wracking up tackles for loss. And they're playing at home with a chance to tie the Dallas Cowboys for second place in the NFC East.
Of course, it's possible the Bears have actually made significant improvements on offense, similar to what we saw midseason last year. It's possible that going forward, we'll see Justin Fields at his absolute best week in and week out again. But Fields' improvement in 2022 came against stout defenses like the Patriots and Cowboys, not one of the league's worst, which the Broncos are this year.
Until and unless the Bears' offense proves it on the field, it's hard to believe that Sunday's performance was anything more than a fluke.
If the defense continues to give opposing quarterbacks a stress-free pocket to throw from, and if the offense cannot make headway against the likes of Montez Sweat, Chase Young, and Daron Payne, then Week 5 could get ugly quickly and end up being the 15th-consecutive loss for Matt Eberflus.
Would the McCaskey family find that to be an irredeemable offense? And would they find it bad enough that they decide Eberflus shouldn't be allowed to save face with an end-of-season firing?
We don't know. All we know is that the Bears have never fired a coach midseason, so it doesn't seem like they'd break with tradition now, no matter how bad it gets with Matt Eberflus.
Of course, they've never had a coach lose 15 games in a row before either, yet here we are. There's a first time for everything.