The Chicago Bears are 3-1 after a loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Three and One. If you only looked at Twitter , you’d think they are 0-4. Granted, they could be 0-4, but they’re not.
Yet, some angst is warranted. After escaping with three wild wins against Detroit, the New York Giants, and Atlanta, the Bears were thoroughly demolished in a 19-11 home loss to Indy that wasn’t quite as close as the score. While the defense competed, the offense was manhandled on all fronts. Matt Nagy had a rough day, Nick Foles had a rough day, the offensive line had a demotion-worthy day, you name it. Here was my post-game thread:
Thread: A few extra thoughts on Colts-Bears…
1. Before the season, I had the Bears at 3-2 after five games. And it looks like that's where they're headed. But 3-2 football teams don't usually have a "Big Yikes!" surrounding them. Right now, these Bears do.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 5, 2020
And here was my observations thread after reviewing the All-22, focused on scheming receivers open on passing plays:
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Thread: Week 4 Colts-Bears All-22 Observations…
NOTE: Usually when reviewing the All-22 in Trubisky's poor games, we've seen open receivers everywhere that were missed. I'm interested in seeing if the Bears schemed guys open vs. the Colts. Live, it didn't seem like it.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
The Bears take on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Soldier Field on Thursday Night Football this week. They have a lot of improvements to make if they want to beat that team. They better hope they’re ready.
With that, let’s reach into this week’s Bears Mailbag. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
Mailbag
They won't go back to Mitch unless Foles either starts throwing a multitude of INTs OR he gets hurt. They essentially closed the book on the Trubisky era when they benched him in Atlanta.
Tyler Bray is not a realistic option.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
Let me elaborate on this one. After the win over the Falcons, Matt Nagy said Nick Foles will be the starting quarterback “moving forward.” That means the only way Mitch Trubisky makes it back on the field is due to injury or if Foles is so bad that Nagy can’t a) justify playing Foles anymore, or b) trust him anymore.
We have to remember — Nagy simply doesn’t trust Trubisky, and that matters a lot when calling plays and designing an offensive game plan. What good is a plan if you don’t think your QB can execute it? The other thing to keep in mind is this: Trubisky has over two years’ worth of tape with Nagy showing he can’t consistently process or execute. Even when the offense was “tailored” more to Mitch this offseason and we saw stuff that Trubisky and fans everywhere clamored for in Weeks 1-3, Trubisky struggled with consistency. Nagy simply lost patience, but it’d been brewing for a while.
Foles had an awful showing against Indianapolis, no doubt, and so did Matt Nagy. Let’s give this combo one more month — that’s when we’ll have a much better idea as to whether Foles can get it done or not. Sunday was bad, but the reality of the circumstances also should be acknowledged: First start and prep week as a starter, no real training camp or preseason to get right, Nagy’s first time calling plays for Foles specifically (it wasn’t good), and an outstanding Colts defense as the opponent. If we’re saying the same things in mid-November, then the Bears are officially in panic mode.
I'd say last week was the first time I've seen the Bears lack energy under Matt Nagy. Usually, it's not a lack of aggressiveness or energy, just execution. Let's see how they respond on Thursday night. If it's more of the same, it could be the sign of coaching trouble.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
The defense is fine, overall. I have fewer concerns about them — mainly just NT and Danny Trevathan.
However, the Bears need to help them out by a) scoring and b) holding possession. There are not enough third-down conversions. Defense sees the field a lot.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
I'm not sure, and I don't like it. I want Montgomery to use his excellent vision, and he's not getting much of a chance to do that. Running inside zone against DeForest Buckner was a special kind of dumb.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
Had a similar question earlier — gonna hold off on researching this until it's evident the Bears are spiraling and a change is coming. It's too premature to speculate at this point. But I'll tell you this — Adam Gase WON'T be a candidate in Chicago. 🙂
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
I think they definitely will do more of that. They tried early on in the Colts game, but they whiffed on execution and it was quickly scrapped. The team is still getting used to Foles at QB. It's not an excuse for the bad play on Sunday, but there is scope for improvement.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
It's a lot of things coming together. Nagy got away from the Weeks 1-3 game plan(s) that showed promise, pending QB execution. QB execution overall hasn't been good. There have been quite a few drops. The OL got demolished in Week 4. They just have to simply execute better.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
Clunky is a good word. They need to make sure they stay ahead of the chains, and they do that by running the ball well. We saw some of that in Detroit (though they didn't score early), and against the Giants. They struggled against Atlanta and Indy. Need to get back to that.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
He's legit. I'm very impressed with Johnson overall. He's had a couple of tough plays where he would've/should've been beaten, but he's been outstanding.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
I want to see what happens on Thursday night first, but it feels unlikely that Nagy would give up play calling mid-season. If he thought it was an issue, he'd have probably decided that in the offseason. But a few more games like the Indy one? He may hand it to Bill Lazor.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
The Bears needed to overhaul the TE spot significantly, so signing Graham and taking Kmet was an attempt at a total revamp. Kmet's playing time certainly concerns me, but he may just not be ready yet.
The Bears need to run more *effectively*. Averaging UNDER 2 YPC is…bad.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
How often does RB3 get carries in a game? Not often. Mike Davis was a decent depth piece who, unfortunately, was more valuable as an attempt at a compensatory 4th round draft pick than he was on the field. It happens.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
This defense does seem to run a lot more on momentum, more so than other defenses of past years. We seem them juiced up for a stop after the offense scores a touchdown, particularly in their comebacks. To be fair, they are also on the field a lot…
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
Both. The offense had a really bad game, and it was exacerbated by the Colts doing everything right on defense. They were exceptional.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
Pagano hasn't blitzed as much as I thought he might. Part of it may be distrust of holding up in man coverage. But when they do blitz, they're not getting home. It's worse if you get beaten on a blitz, hence the zone.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
No. Trestman's scheme was pretty effective, but Nagy (at least for now) has navigated this team/locker room through a lot. He's a very good leader.
Though I wonder how Trestman would fare with this locker room. Remember, Lovie's loyal defense led the charge against Trestman.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 7, 2020
It's a series of things. The QB for three years has been that bad. The predictability on offense was evident in the Colts game, but that hadn't been much of an issue before this game. The OL is just average. A franchise QB can hide a lot, but the Bears don't have one.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
I don't think that's entirely fair. They ran a respectable process with Ernie Accorsi back when they hired Ryan Pace — it was due diligence with an actual football person. We can argue they got the decision wrong, though.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
Nagy changed a lot in Weeks 1-3. For some reason, they reverted to different stuff in Week 4. Maybe they'll get back to the older stuff this Thursday night.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 7, 2020
It starts by getting to the red zone and near the goal line more often… That's something the Bears haven't done a lot of.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 6, 2020
You know better than to ask that.
— Dhruv Koul (@DhruvKoul) October 7, 2020
