Last week against the San Francisco 49ers, head coach Matt Nagy wasn’t on the sideline. He was away battling COVID. That game just happened to be arguably the best performance for the Chicago Bears offense all year. It looked so different too. More screens, bootlegs, moving pockets, and play action. They seemed to work more towards the strengths of quarterback Justin Fields and he played well. Some people started to wonder if being away from Nagy’s influence played a part in that.
Just one half into the Monday night game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, it became apparent that this supposed “coincidence” seems like anything but. Everything that makes the Bears offense so frustrating returned with a vengeance. Loads of pre-snap penalties. Penalties coming out of timeouts. No rhythm and worst of all a game plan that seemed to work in stark contrast to what their quarterback does best.
#Bears penalties so far:
– Too Many Men on Field
– Unnecessary Roughness
– Illegal Formation
– Illegal Use of Hands,
– False Start— Barroom Network (@BarroomNetwork) November 9, 2021
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Boots-0— Olin kreutz (@olin_kreutz) November 9, 2021
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It's dumb to not put Justin Fields' legs in play for a single goal-line play on three attempts.
— Matt Clapp (@DaBearNecess) November 9, 2021
Cole Kmet accounted for 87.3% of the #Bears receiving yards (55 of 63) in the first half.
— The Chicago Audible (@ChicagoAudible) November 9, 2021
The Bears didn’t even run a bootleg play action until the 2nd quarter.
Then after being granted great field position on their own 48 and Justin Fields opened the drive with a 25-yard completion on that exact play? They lost 14 yards the rest of the way and punted. Nothing summed up the Bears offense better than that sequence. A group that is poorly prepared and poorly coached. They can’t get out of their own way. Throw in 12 penalties on the evening and what more does ownership need to see at this point? This marks the third season in a row the Bears have had a losing streak of at least four games.
Nagy has brought nothing to the table this season. Whether he’s on the sideline or not makes no difference. The Bears continue to find brutal ways to lose. This speaks to a head coach who can’t get his players to execute anymore. It’s not like this team is lacking talent either. They have some good football players on both sides of the ball. They have no business being this bad. Yet they are.
I'm not a fan of single-shot analysis… but this is bad. pic.twitter.com/PpA1BV1M58
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) November 9, 2021
Um, not roughing QB?
Ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/yHsRecDOZc— Mike Chappell (@mchappell51) November 9, 2021
Matt Nagy has no answer. When that happens it’s time to move on
Somebody had a great quote one time. The best head coaches are problem solvers. Or a better way to put it is they have a way to direct people to solve their own problems. Bill Belichick, Sean McVay, Sean Payton, and John Harbaugh are some of the best in the NFL at doing this. The same can’t be said for Nagy. It too often feels like he creates more problems with how his entire system operates.
Will yet another loss where the offense couldn’t score finally do it? The Bears have their perfect opportunity. The bye week is at hand. That gives them two weeks to get a possible interim coach situated. This organization has never fired a head coach during a season. Marc Trestman certainly deserved it but his worst moments came after the bye. Not the case with Matt Nagy. Smart money says it won’t happen.
Meaning Bears fans will get eight more games of this.
That is paramount to a war crime at his point. Jokes aside, the writing is on the wall at this point. Whether it’s during the bye or at the end of the season, the result is a virtual guarantee. Nagy has coached his final season with the Bears. The team was able to overlook his atrocious offense as long as they found ways to win. That has now stopped. It’s all bad and he can’t hide from it anymore.
