Bears had Matt Eberflus answer for his devastating calls just before the shot

Chicago Bears fans had little to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day, as a series of late-game blunders led to another stunning loss.

But what isn’t all that surprising is that Christmas has come early for some Bears fans and they can now cross at least one item off their wish list because head coach Matt Eberflus is out.

In his last press conference on Friday morning, Eberflus emphasized that he would still be on the bench on Sunday.

“I’m confident I’ll be working in San Francisco (next week when we play)…” the head coach said just hours before he was shown the door.

Eberflus revealed that he met with Chicago’s president and general manager after Sunday’s game, as he does every week. He also said the three were scheduled to speak again later in the day.

The talk of job security – or lack thereof – comes with the still-fresh pain of Thursday’s 23-20 loss in Detroit.

“The operation wasn’t quick enough,” Eberflus said of his Bears’ highly scrutinized final drive.

It’s an astute observation, albeit one that any of Ford Field’s 65,000-plus employees could have guessed.

With less than three minutes on the clock and his Bears trailing by three, Williams and the Chicago offense advanced from their own one-yard line into Lions territory.

What happened next — the penalties, the sacks, the failure to call timeouts — has been told many times. In Chicago, deplorable; radiant in Detroit; and even in the mail, expectantly. It was a collapse of epic proportions, even by the Bears’ standards.

Eberflus was lit by Jim Nantz and Tony Romo in the CBS booth. Calls for the coach to be fired became louder than ever during the Bears’ 4-8 season.

The man of the hour addressed the game-ending debacle during his media release Friday morning, noting that he rewatched the final drive earlier in the day with interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown.

“I thought the operation was good, the penalties alone put us behind,” said Eberflus. “We were in position to score and we really could have won the game.”

When discussing his decision not to take a timeout at a critical point near the end of that final drive, Eberflus explained that the option was on the table, but they decided against it because they intended to stop the clock before a final drive . second field goal attempt.

But because there was no time out, there was no attempt.

“All of these decisions are my decisions,” Eberflus said. “I take full responsibility for them and we failed. It’s unfortunate for the players, the fans.”

The suffering may not be over for the Chicago faithful, but it is for Eberflus.