Bears' Eberflus emphasizes 'boxer's mentality' with after-whistle penalties

Every inch counts.

That's the message Bears coach Matt Eberflus is trying to pound into players' heads during his first training camp at Halas Hall.

It's a message that did not stick under Matt Nagy over the past few seasons.

Too often the Bears would commit maddening after-the-whistle penalties that either stalled drives or extended opponents' possessions. Last season alone, Nagy's squad was called for unnecessary roughness a league-high 11 times.

So it will be interesting to see what Eberflus' response will be if any egregious infractions occur.

We all remember WR Javon Wims getting ejected - and then earning a two-game suspension - for punching Saints safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson in November 2020. Incredibly, Anthony Miller was then ejected for smacking Gardner-Johnson during the Bears' playoff loss to the Saints two months later.

The Bears were also hit with taunting penalties early in 2019.

This kind of behavior shouldn't be tolerated at this level. At all.

So institute a zero-tolerance policy from the outset. Commit an after-the-whistle penalty and you are sitting for at least two plays - and perhaps much longer depending on who committed the infraction and how much it hurt the team.

I asked Eberflus how he would handle these situations after Friday's practice. His initial response revolved around penalties in general and making sure players understand that, hey, you may have made that play at practice but it was only because you cheated.

OK. But what about the unnecessary penalties?

"That's just discipline. That's all that is," Eberflus said. "So after that, that's something that is addressed every single time. We're not gonna hurt our football team by being undisciplined and losing self control.

"To me it's a boxer's mentality - you've got to deliver a blow, you've got to take a blow and you've got to keep your mind in-between."

Easier said than done under Nagy. Now we'll see how the Bears act under Eberflus.

The first-year head coach noted that the Indianapolis Colts - where Eberflus was defensive coordinator from 2018-21 - normally ranked near the top of the league in fewest penalties.

One thing the Bears have going for them is the fact that their new faces - and there are a lot of them - are fringe veterans doing everything they can to stick.

A dumb, careless penalty can mean a quick one-way ticket to the bench because someone of similar ability is below you on the depth chart.

O-lineman Cody Whitehair - the longest-tenured Bear on the offense - hopes this squad can keep the pedal to the metal while also understanding how important it is to pull back when plays are over.

"We don't want to take away from the aggression and style of play that we are playing with," Whitehair said. "But we also have to know when to stop or when to kind of pull it back. One of our emphasis is obviously not being a very penalized team ... because as we know it hurts drives (and) critical situations in the game. We are definitely working on that.

"But the intensity and style of play we have will always be aggressive."

From all indications Eberflus is running a very tight ship thus far. Coaches are demanding maximum effort on every rep of every drill.

Slack off and you'll hear about it.

And you'd better keep your cool. Or you'll also hear about it.

"I tell the guys kind of jokingly when they let you fight in the ballgame, we'll fight in practice," said defensive coordinator Alan Williams after Saturday's practice at Halas Hall. "But right now they don't let us fight so we won't tolerate it in practice. ...

"We want to play hard. We don't want to back down. We're going to play within the rules. We're going to be tough.

"And we're not going to cower down to anyone."