Matt Nagy didn’t seem like a man who was overly happy when he met with the media last Friday. Somewhat unusual given his team just pulled off a huge victory over the favored Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football. Their first win ever against Tom Brady. Nick Foles, Allen Robinson, and Khalil Mack were big heroes. Why so grumpy? The answer was pretty obvious.
The offense.
Once again the unit he had a personal stake in looked anything but good for most of the game. It managed just 243 total yards, failed to run the ball at all, had some rough penalties, and suffered from ongoing execution issues. Nagy showed visible frustration with their lacking attention to the “details.”
When Robinson was asked about that, he couldn’t help but smile.
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“As he should be. I think everybody should be fired up about that. Again I think that’s what also makes the players in this locker room special. We don’t have any complacency. None of our quarterbacks are complacent. Our receivers aren’t complacent. Nobody’s walking around here satisfied. Yeah, we’re fortunate to happen to be 4-1.
It’s tough to win in this league. At the end of the day, we aren’t sitting back waiting on praise or thinking we have arrived or anything like that. We know we got a long way to go.”
Allen Robinson has every right to be frustrated too
If anybody is being honest, he’s pretty the driving force in this offense. He has 421 yards and two touchdowns in five games. No other receiver is even up to half that much production. Combine that with the offensive line issues and lack of a running game? Yeah, it’s hardly a surprise he shares Nagy’s frustration for how this group has performed.
Especially considering the risk he’s taking by playing at all. Remember that Robinson is in the final year of his current contract. He has made it clear he wants an extension. By continuing to play without one, he’s putting himself at risk of injury. An event that would ruin his chances of a pay raise.
One can only imagine how he felt watching what happened to Dak Prescott. The Bears must do better. Either extend him or get more out of this offense to ease the burden on their star receiver.
Opportunities for improvement are about to arrive
Allen Robinson could end up seeing more results in the coming weeks. The Bears just navigated arguably the toughest stretch of defenses they’re likely to face this season. Indianapolis was #1 in the NFL and Tampa Bay was #2. Several of their upcoming games will be up against much more generous defenses including the Panthers, Saints, and Titans.
That should allow this offense to hopefully start finding more of a groove. Foles will get better protection and develop better chemistry with his receivers. Nobody should expect this offense to become elite, but it’s fully capable of being average. Given that defense the team has, average should be more than enough to make a playoff run.