FRISCO, Texas – On Sunday, Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus will make his return to Chicago for the first time following his three-year stint as the Bears head coach.
In 46 games as the head coach with the Bears, Eberflus went 14-32 and was fired following the team's Week 13 loss to the Detroit Lions. He was the first head coach in Chicago's 105-year franchise history. Despite the tough times, Eberflus isn't going into this game any different than he would another.
"We're keeping our process and our preparation the same as we always do," Eberflus said. "I'm always grateful, I have much gratitude for my whole coaching career. I always look back at anything how you can learn, how you can grow, and get better and improve, and that's the biggest part of experience, and that's what we're doing there."
Eberflus didn't go deep into his time as the Bears head coach but consistently spoke about how he cherished his time in Chicago and views it as a learning experience.
"There's always hard moments in coaching," Eberflus said. "You always are disappointed when you lose because you put so much into it, the players put so much into it, and you're most disappointed for the players. Then once that settles in and you work towards the next day, the sun comes up and you move forward."
After Eberflus was relieved of his duties, he got his wife Kelly and two daughters, Grace and Giada, together. It was the first time that he had a December off in a long time, and he wanted to take advantage of the time with his family.
"Two things are going to happen: We're going to get closer together, and we're going to get closer to the Lord," Eberflus told them. "To me, we accomplished those two things and it was a good time with the family."
Some coaches, like former Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, have decided to get away from the game for a while and take a year off. Eberflus didn't take a lot of time to come to a decision of his own.
"I think you reflect and see what you want to do," Eberflus said. "It didn't take long for me to figure out I wanted to get back in. That's an important thing, I love coaching players, I love working with the players, and that's something that I've always loved to do."
With his mind made up, Eberflus went into the self-scouting process on himself and how he coached, one that all NFL coaches do at the end of a season. In his eyes, it's necessary.
"You have to," Eberflus said. "You come up with different aspects of your scheme that you need to, but it also comes down to the players you have available to you. I think that it's important that you move your scheme to the players that you have."
As he takes the reigns of the defense in Dallas, his third game puts him against Caleb Williams, who the Bears drafted with the number one overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Through two games, his former head coach is seeing steps in his development.
"Really it's just working through the process of the second season," Eberflus said of Williams. "Working through the timing and the rhythm of that offense, and you can see that going forward from game one to game two to game three."
While some players look at their return to their former teams and/or cities with a bit more anticipation and excitement, Eberflus fit the bill of what Brian Schottenheimer descrbied him as: A guy that doesn't get too high, nor too low.
"I look at it as one opportunity for us to be able to go out there and really execute," Eberflus said. "It's game three, and it's important that we need to improve, and everybody needs to improve throughout the league. Everybody has an issue here and there early in the season they've got to improve on, and that's all we can do."
A week after giving up 450 yards through the air to Russell Wilson and the Giants offense, it can certainly make it easier to focus on internal factors before even thinking about external ones.
"We have to play better team defense," Eberflus said. "We've all got to be on the same page, we've got to do a good job of alignments and key technique, and playing clean football…"
"When you give up big plays, I don't think they're minor. Those are major things, and we have to do a better job of all 11 players, including the coaches, executing on the certain play… they have to execute, and that's the coaches and the players."
Even if there weren't internal things to worry about, Eberflus hasn't put thought into how he'll be received at his first game back at Soldier Field.
"I haven't thought about it." Eberflus said.
