Eberflus, Bears focused on snapping losing streak

Eberflus’ attitude throughout the season hasn’t wavered, even during the down period, which tight end Cole Kmet and safety DeAndre Houston-Carson said helps keep morale high.

While Kmet believes losing streaks will always be tough no matter what, staying the course throughout the season has been easier with Eberflus leading the way.

“I appreciate how coach has really handled this here,” Kmet said. “He’s been consistent every week, whether it’s coming off a winning week or a losing week. Coach has been the same. And that’s something that you appreciate as a player. He’s not deviating from how he approaches things and things like that. He keeps it consistent, and he believes in his process and guys believe in that process with the “HITS” principle and things like that.”

The effect of installing the HITS principle this offseason has continued to show up in games, despite the final results. While Eberflus said the takeaways portion is “not good enough,” he’s seen the hustle, intensity and effort persistent through each week. As far as playing smart football, the coach said the “penalties are a little high” but feels they’ve “done some good things.”

Eberflus believes continuing to emphasize the HITS principle and focusing on those core values of the team will be helpful for future seasons.

“Building a foundation in your organization for your football team is huge,” Eberflus said, “because you’ve got to lay that foundation of what the standards are. How we operate. How we practice. How we go about our business. How we treat each other in the building. How we respect each other in the building. And that creates high morale. And that’s what it is. When the wins come it’s a different thing. You gotta deal with all the praise and everything that’s on top of it, and that’s going to be a different issue when we get there.

“But that foundation is what you stand on. You stand on the effort, the intensity, the things that we stand on, the principles. And the standard’s for everybody. The standard that’s for Justin Fields is the same for the guy that’s at the back end of the roster. It’s the same — how we operate. So that to me is important.”