ANOTHER DOOR-MATT?
Nagy’s lopsided loss to Packers after bye is unfortunate flashback to Trestman era
There’s no such thing as a good loss to the Packers. But Matt Nagy’s debut as Bears coach came pretty close in 2018.
The Bears led 17-0 at halftime, with Nagy’s offense off to a fast start and Khalil Mack being even better than advertised with a dominant performance.
It was all for naught as Aaron Rodgers returned from a first-half injury to rally the Packers to an uncanny 24-23 victory at Lambeau Field. But the promise of Nagy’s fresh approach and the excitement of Mack’s dazzling debut trumped the final result. Even in defeat, it seemed like the dawn of a new era.
It was a far different story Sunday night at Lambeau as Nagy’s Bears unexpectedly treaded into the dangerous territory of shame in a 41-25 loss that was not nearly as close as the score indicated.
The Bears’ vaunted defense, which was supposed to be a firewall against a repeat of the ignominious 55-14 post-bye debacle in 2014 that sealed the fate of general manager Phil Emery and coach Marc Trestman, collapsed in a dreadful performance, helpless against the run or pass. And deficits of 27-3 in the first half and 41-20 in the third quarter were a little too reminiscent of the 2014 embarrassment.
It reeked of not just poor execution but poor preparation, especially coming off the bye. And as good as Rodgers was — four touchdown passes and a 132.3 passer rating that was the best against the Bears’ defense in the last five seasons — Packers coach Matt LaFleur was even better, with an offense that kept the Bears off balance from the start. They weren’t just outplayed, they were outcoached.
And not surprisingly, it was a performance that turned up the heat on Nagy, whose team not only has lost five straight games after a 5-1 start but is getting worse every week. The Bears were better when Nagy’s offense was just spinning its wheels.
It’s a downturn that has produced another distraction — Nagy’s job is almost certainly in peril. The admirable culture at Halas Hall that Nagy has built might not save him if it doesn’t start producing victories. And the upcoming four-game stretch against teams with losing records — the Lions (4-7) and Texans (4-7) at Soldier Field, the Vikings (5-6) and Jaguars (1-10) on the road — is not the safety net it once appeared to be.
Nagy didn’t push back against the notion that his job status is in doubt. “That’s all a part of our business,” he said Monday.
“Every one of us — not just head coaches, but coordinators, position coaches, all our families, we all sign up for that. That comes with where we’re at. I can’t worry about that right now. What I have to do is make sure that I do whatever we’re not doing, we get it fixed and we get it right.”
Therein lies the biggest obstacle for Nagy and his staff to get out of this rut. They are about out of tangible solutions. They’re down to counting on pride and an even greater work ethic to snap out of it.
“If you’re catching 10 balls at the jugs [machine] after practice, go catch 20,” Nagy said. “If you’re watching three hours of video in one night, go watch four.”
Those are admirable qualities that often make a good team great but rarely make a bad team good. But it’s all Nagy has left at this point. He knows that fretting about his job status won’t help.
“When you lose five in a row like this, you’ve got to come up with different solutions, and then you’ve got to have that pride,” Nagy said. “So put all that other stuff aside, I have to worry about every day being the leader for these guys and this team and understand, ‘OK, where’s our warts? And clean them up. And then what’s our strengths, and let’s do more of that.”
His players’ belief in him is so much of his value as Bears coach that the last thing Nagy can do is let them see him sweat. His bag of tricks might be empty, but he can take the heat.
“For me, there’s that pride that you have to have,” Nagy said, “Our guys do care. I know they care. I felt that [Sunday] night in our locker room. But now it’s about doing it, and it’s as simple as that.”