While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t play on Sunday, they still came away a winner based on how things shook out. There was a marginal climb in the playoff standings, with the Bucs moving past the Chicago Bears and up to the 11th best team in the conference — and the fourth team out of the picture.
It wasn’t the only way the Bears managed to help the Bucs in Week 11.
We’ve reached the point in the season where head coaching rumors are going to start popping up, and last week Liam Coen’s name started getting tossed around as a potential top candidate. The job he’s done with Baker Mayfield was already impressive but his stock has only gone up the more he makes up for the absence of Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.
One of the teams that came up as a potential fit for Coen was the Bears, who entered the fray after they fired their offensive coordinator last week. Shan Waldron was a total disaster, something that was evident in the big game Caleb Williams had on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
While Bears fans were happy with what they saw, so were Buccaneers fans who can rest a little easier when it comes to competition for their guy.
Buccaneers might have less competition for Liam Coen after Bears Week 11 performance
Thomas Bryant took over as offensive coordinator for the Bears and helped the team score its first touchdown since Week 8. Chicago’s entire offensive flow looked better, right down to how much better Williams was in getting the ball out and his decision-making.
Williams finished with 231 yards and a few highlight reel plays that showed why the Bears took him No. 1 overall. It was vintage Caleb, and the Bears offense looked unlike anything we’d seen so far this season.
That’s great news for the Buccaneers, as the wheels have begun turning on the Bears convincing themselves that something good might be cooking on offense. The entire idea of bringing in Coen would be designed around unlocking levels to Williams that we haven’t seen yet and the Bears have been unable to do.
Of course, it’s just one game and there’s plenty of time for Chicago to find out that Bryant isn’t the guy to craft Caleb’s future. More than that, there are even more questions about whether Matt Eberflus is the right head coach after some of the bizarre decisions he made in what ended up being a loss for the Bears.
Bucaneers fans will sympathize with Bears fans after watching Eberflus’ mind-bogglingly bad clock management at the end of the game. With over a half minute left and a timeout in his back pocket, Eberflus decided to run the clock down and settle for a 46 yard field goal rather than run at least one more play to get a closer look — or a breakaway touchdown.
There’s unsettling shades of Todd Bowles in there.
Coen is going to increasingly get head coaching hype and the Bucs will ultimately have a huge decision to make this offseason in terms of what the future looks like if he gets poached. That’s a bridge we’ll cross later, though, and for now it seems the heat has cooled a bit on at least one team that might be after Coen next year.
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