There was no way that disaster of an offensive performance in Cleveland on Sunday wasn’t going to have repercussions. Nine sacks on your prized rookie quarterback? Six points? Barely over 100 yards total? It was a complete farce and the blame has fallen squarely at the feet of head coach Matt Nagy. Fans and media alike couldn’t believe the game plan he went with. Straight drop back after straight drop back. Barely any rollouts, bootlegs, or screens. No commitment to the run game. He played right into the strengths of the Browns defense.
That is not what good head coaches do. In fact, that is the exact opposite of what good head coaches do. Now it appears Nagy’s once firm grasp on the situation is starting to erode. There were already rumblings about the struggles on offense after the opener in Los Angeles two weeks ago. Now people are seeing Nick Foles mention how bad it looks on the sideline and Jimmy Graham retweet about its history ineptitude on Twitter.
It has become a national embarrassment.
More than ever it’s apparent that Nagy is out of his depth. He is a solid leader, but it takes more than that to have success in the NFL. The defense has carried his sorry excuse of an offense for over three seasons now. They’re tired of having their strong performances wasted. Now it seems even firm supporters of the head coach have begun to waver. According to Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog, there is a feeling in Halas Hall that if the Bears lose to the Lions this Sunday that the head coach could be the first-ever in franchise history to be fired during a season.
Thread.
Yesterday, as negativity engulfed the Bears, I tried supremely hard to find a positive voice in support of Matt Nagy. Fans hate hearing this, but those DO exist inside the building.
Or maybe I should say DID.
Because yesterday I couldn’t find one.
(1/6)
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) September 28, 2021
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Not only could I not find voices in support of Nagy, I found several who would normally be those voices completely resigned to his end.
One text: “If he loses to the Lions Sunday he’s going to be out. But he’s not going to lose to the Lions, is he?”
“He” not “they”.
(2/6)
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) September 28, 2021
But Nagy continues making unforced errors.
His mindless decision to say Foles may start Sunday – without putting the health qualifier on it – further pissed people off inside the building.
This was a national story on MNF and it was positioned as a critique of Fields!
(4/6)
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) September 28, 2021
There’s a growing sense that with Bill Lazor on staff, and Sean Desai running the defense, firing Nagy in-season would not be as dramatic a move as it would have been in the past for the Bears.
But don’t they have to fire Pace at same time? (This is a different topic.)
(5/6)
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) September 28, 2021
The Bears will be 5+ point underdogs in the six games that follow Sunday. (And significantly more in some cases.)
If Nagy loses Sunday, 1-9 is a likely start to this season. (Hell, 3-6 feels now like best case scenario.)
If Nagy loses Sunday, it could be over Monday.
(6/6)
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) September 28, 2021
Nagy has historically owned the Lions and they’re still not a good team. However, they play much harder under new head coach Dan Campbell. If Nagy’s offense looks anything like it did in Cleveland? It isn’t hard to imagine the Bears falling at home to their division rival. From there, it would just be a matter of time before the head coach is out.
Matt Nagy has nobody to blame but himself
George McCaskey gift-wrapped him a second chance despite clear evidence the team was trending in the wrong direction and had been since the end of 2018. Then one of the first decisions he makes is resuming play calling duties despite a mountain of evidence that he is terrible at it. Of all the bad decisions Nagy has made the past few years, that one could end up being the final crack that breaks the dam.
Nobody is getting better. Cole Kmet remains irrelevant on Sundays. Darnell Mooney isn’t taking the next step. Allen Robinson has actually regressed. The offensive line is a mess. Nothing is working and the players know it. Something has to change. Either Matt Nagy has to hand the call sheet back to Bill Lazor or he has to be shown the door. It isn’t a hard guess which one the fans would prefer at this point.
Nagy isn’t a bad guy, he’s just terrible at the job he was hired to do.
Sure his priority is to win games, but everybody knows the main reason he was hired was to fix the offense. Make Mitch Trubisky a success and finally start scoring points. He did neither. Would he still be employed if he hadn’t ridden a great defense to a 12-4 record in 2018? Probably not and it seems people are finally starting to recognize that.
