The Chicago Bears look to keep their surprising season alive against the New York Giants today in the Meadowlands.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — First-year coaches Matt Eberflus in Chicago and Brian Daboll in New York have created unexpected excitement for the Bears and Giants early this season.
Barring a tie, one of them will improve to 3-1 when they meet at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
A good start was something on their rookie wish lists this season rather than the expectation. The Bears were 6-11 in 2021 under Matt Nagy, while the Giants went 4-13 under Joe Judge.
Two of the NFL’s oldest franchises, they hired new general managers and coaches. The Bears brought in Kansas City’s Ryan Poles as GM, and he hired Eberflus, the former Colts’ defensive coordinator. New York went to Buffalo for help, getting assistant GM Joe Schoen to run the organization and offensive coordinator Daboll to run the team.
They’ve had success heading into Sunday’s matchup. The Bears have wins over San Francisco and Houston and a loss to the Packers. The Giants opened with wins over Tennesee and Carolina and lost to Dallas on Monday night.
Eberflus and Daboll haven’t revealed much of substance regarding what has gone right. They have talked about continuing the process of learning, getting better week to week and fixing mistakes.
“Really it’s a function of guys being mindful of their practice,” Eberflus said. “That’s what we talked about in the team meeting today. You have to be mindful of the techniques and fundamentals you’re working on during the individual period and during the team periods.”
Daboll said he has been evaluating his team, his coaching staff and their decisions after every game.
