It was the Hail Mary pass that launched the Bears into the bottomless pit they currently fall into.

Now Matt Eberflus has thrown his own Hail Mary pass in the form of a pass from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron to Thomas Brown. One can only hope there is a Tyrique Stevenson type on the other side who can turn the job to receiver and save the coaching regime.

It would be nice if Bears fans thought a move like firing OC could change their fortunes, but the truth is that too much work is being done against them to prevent their spiral from stopping until it ends with the firing of Eberflus. There are examples of OC firings working for a team’s immediate success; The last one was in Buffalo, where they went 6-1 with Joe Brady after firing Ken Dorsey. But this was a team that already had a proven, winning structure.

Brown Ahead of the Game This Time

Brown taking over the Bears offense with a system he has studied for three years gives him an advantage over last year, when he had to undergo an emergency procedure when he was called up by the Carolina Panthers.

Brown had only been working under Frank Reich and within that system for just six games when he was first tasked with making offensive play decisions. Sean McVay’s three years with the Rams give him a better chance of success with the Bears than last year, when the Panthers averaged 11.4 points per game.

What matters is the personnel and how they use these players.

The fact that his quarterback is a rookie and the first overall pick is a familiar situation for Brown. And his team has one of the best defenses in the league.

Last year, Carolina finished fourth in the league in defense but still only won two games. The Bears currently rank 13th in defense, but seventh in points allowed and seventh in pass defense. They gave up the fewest passes, ranked No. 1 in red zone defense and seventh in defensive third-down percentage.

So there is evidence that better support for their defense could be a morale booster.

They have played strong complementary football during the current three-game losing streak and the three-game winning streak that immediately preceded Waldron’s strike.

problems

This team, which is trying to change its offensive coordinators in midfield and expects success, has three real problems.

One is a rookie quarterback. Another is how far they have fallen into the hopeless pit. The last one is the offensive line.

Despite Brown’s experience working with the No. 1 overall rookie in Bryce Young last year, it wasn’t a positive. Young had a better passer rating on Frank Reich’s play calling than on Brown’s calling: 76.5 to 73.1. He didn’t improve and still looked bad until this year, when he made big strides in the final games under new head coach Dave Canales.

Expecting a rookie passer who has trouble grasping the NFL to grasp any change in coordinators is a real question. Maybe a veteran can handle this, but a rookie who has just passed the halfway point of his first season will have difficulty with all transitions.

Getting the team back together will require more than just working with Williams to restore his and the players’ trust in him. His teammates also already look frustrated with all the chaos. This second problem is how screwed they are already. Who debuted anyway?

A few, like TJ Edwards, said players don’t do that.

But Cole Kmet saw players cheating in practice earlier this season, and on Monday cornerback Jaylon Johnson was on WSCR AM-670’s Spiegel and Holmes show for a regular radio spot and didn’t play it up when asked if some players were. They didn’t work as hard as others.

“Yes, there is no doubt about it,” he said.

That may be true, but as long as that remains the case, it reflects negatively on the coaching staff and Matt Eberflus, who talks about constant effort and bases the HITS principle on that.

Fundamental things like this don’t change overnight in the middle of the season. It is impossible for a team with the lack of momentum and direction described in these statements to come back, regardless of its coordinator or quarterback.

It’s All About Supporting Williams

Ultimately, Williams is the future of the team and needs playing experiences to draw from, but getting beat up and walking around like a rag doll isn’t going to keep him healthy or provide him with the valuable plays he needs to eventually find success.

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The offensive line is miserable. There’s no other way to put this.

With three starters out, they play the third-string center on defense, and with two tackles injured, the beating will continue. Teven Jenkins is the team’s best lineman and has been injured without missing a start in five of the last six games. The Bears gave up 38 sacks, good for second in the league. They allowed 15 points in the last two games.

You can sit and watch film of Williams forever and conclude that some of the sacks are his fault, but until you give him the consistent time he needs to set up and throw more often, there’s no value in even having prized rookies on the field. They can only hope the line injuries are over.

For all these reasons, the Eberflus regime looks doomed and the trouble is that they still have eight games left.

If they decide to fire a coach now, it’s questionable how much value they’ll add to Williams over the final eight games.

Eberflus can at least run the defense and call defensive plays. When Eric Washington did this in Carolina, things didn’t go so well.

As long as Eberflus is around, their defense can at least provide some sort of boost to the troubled offense and give them a fighting chance to get into games.

This gives more value to Williams’ development because he is in closer situations and isn’t always there in garbage time. It allows one last vestige of stability from which the QB can learn.

So keeping Eberflus at least until his Hail Mary attempt with Brown proves unsuccessful would be fair to both him and Williams in terms of stability and development.

Once they know the team’s fate for sure, they can fire a head coach later in the season with a few games left, ending the Bears’ idiotic history of never firing a head coach during a season.

That won’t last long, though, as Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit and San Francisco face off directly and there’s a big break before the 49ers game.

Twitter: BearsOnSI