Ain’t no Lion: Bears, Nagy beat a bad team
DETROIT — Three thoughts after the Chicago Bears went on an 18-play drive that lasted the final 8 minutes, 30 seconds of Thursday’s game at Ford Field to set up Cairo Santos’ walk-off 28-yard field goal to defeat the Detroit Lions 16-14 and end a five-game losing streak.
1. Matt Nagy got a reprieve
The Bears were able to take advantage — even if it required every second of all 60 minutes — and extend the misery of the Lions, who fell to 0-10-1 and have not won since a Dec. 6, 2020, trip to Soldier Field last season. The Lions are 0-14-1 since that afternoon, which was their first game after firing general manager Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia on Thanksgiving weekend.
The Lions opted to reboot their franchise over the holiday a year ago, and while it looked earlier this week like there was a possibility the Bears would begin a similar process, now it appears that plan is on hold. For how long, we’ll have to wait and see. Six games remain in the season, and you better believe Nagy will do everything in his power to start the Bears on a late winning streak. He’ll have to do so while facing a challenging schedule that has two firstplace teams the next two weeks in the Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers.
The Bears talked about overcoming distractions in a bizarre week, and the players should be credited for staying on task and earning a victory over the hapless Lions.
No one else involved with the organization deserves credit for overcoming distractions because it’s impossible to convince me the “Nagy will be fired after Thursday” story didn’t originate from the team. To what degree the story evolved as it was passed along, I would be only guessing. Once the Bears lost control of things Tuesday, I imagine that’s when plans changed on the fly, especially knowing a public relations disaster would not impress anyone the team is potentially interested in pursuing in the future. That’s my hunch on the matter.
If the Bears were candid, they would admit to bungling the situation after the report — which the team has now thoroughly pooh-poohed — broke Tuesday morning.
“There’s always going to be distractions,” Nagy said after the game. “It’s how you handle them. And again, we got the win today and it could have went a lot of different ways, but the reason why we got the win is because of how they (the players) handled the distractions. When you’re in this business and you lead people, it’s my job to make sure of honest and open communication, and I just can’t tell you how much this win means today to me because of what they did.”
Said tight end Cole Kmet, who caught eight passes for 65 yards: “I’m not going to lie, it’s tough. You don’t know what’s true, what’s not. Then you see things that are true because you were there for them, and you wonder how those things get out. So there’s a lot of confusion in that sense. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to just block it out and go play football.”
You’re never going to take away from a victory in the NFL, but the Bears barely managed to beat the worst team in the league. The offense has struggled to score all season, and putting up 16 points against the Lions doesn’t change that. Any questions McCaskey had about the direction of the team coming out of Sunday’s blown lead in a loss to the Lamar Jackson-less Baltimore Ravens have not changed.
This isn’t to knock Nagy, who is leading a team that’s dealing with a lot of injuries to some of its highest-paid players. He got paired with a quarterback (Mitch Trubisky) he wasn’t part of choosing when he came on board in 2018. He has worked furiously to make it with a quarterback (Justin Fields) he was part of choosing while dealing with an offensive line that has gotten progressively worse since he arrived and limited talent at the skill positions. When Nagy said earlier this month it’s “no one’s fault other than everybody’s,” he’s right. The thing is, the coach becomes one of the first to fall when everyone is at fault.
So the music was bumping in the locker room after Thursday’s game as the Bears celebrated their first victory since Oct. 10 in Las Vegas. For perspective on how long ago that was, the White Sox also won that day.
“There’s some relief, for sure,” said quarterback Andy Dalton, who filled in for Fields after the rookie was
sidelined with a rib injury. “To go on a losing streak, five games, that’s tough, especially the way the last couple have been. But for us, to have everything going on this week and everything on the outside, for our guys to just play to the very end and get a win on Thanksgiving, it’s special. That’s the biggest thing. We’re going to enjoy this one.”
2. In the big picture, what did the Bears gain?
Beat the Lions and you’re supposed to do that, right? Barely beat the Lions and that’s sort of damning, no? At 4-7, the Bears are at the point where the majority of interest internally and externally is on the development of Justin Fields. That process is on pause until he returns from an injury that the team is calling “day to day.” If he can get back on the practice field by the middle of next week, he’ll stand a decent chance of playing Dec. 5 when the Arizona Cardinals come to Soldier Field. Any time Fields plays, it’s a chance for him to grow, learn and possibly perform well.
Andy Dalton completed 24 of 39 passes for 317 yards Thursday, marking the first time this season the offense has topped 300 passing yards. With Allen Robinson (hamstring) sidelined for the second consecutive game, Darnell Mooney caught five
passes for 123 yards, including a 52-yard shot play. Mooney had at least one drop, perhaps two, but he’s starting to settle in. He has gone over 100 yards in two consecutive games and three times for the season as he had 125 yards in the first meeting with the Lions.
I liked what Mooney had to say after the game when he was critical of his showing Sunday against he Ravens, noting that while he had five catches for 121 yards, they came on a whopping 16 targets.
“You see the five catches, the (121) yards, but you also see the (16) targets,” he said. “There’s a lot of things out there that if you really look at it, there’s two of them that are touchdowns. Anytime the ball comes to me, I feel like I should catch it. Regardless of it’s one hand, the tip of my finger, I feel like I should catch it.
“Some of the things (he and Dalton) worked on in the summer, we kind of had chemistry. So it was kind of easy to be on the same page during the game. Walkthroughs, I didn’t exactly know how it was going to be because Justin has been the quarterback and I’ve created chemistry with him. I guess the summer workouts and training camp helped out good enough.”
Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor offered interesting thoughts on Mooney on Tuesday that provide a little insight into what has helped the second-year pro emerge
as a player who could be considered the team’s clear No. 1 receiver before next season.
“The thing I’ll say about Darnell Mooney is his mindset,” Lazor said. “Just loves football, businesslike approach, professional approach, does not get distracted. I’ve never seen the guy get distracted from his job. Now, I’m not with him outside the building and all of that, but I’ve talked to him enough. The guy is focused on his job and being a great player.”
3. Andy Dalton did a nice job on the final drive.
It’s the third game the Lions have lost on a game-ending field goal. The Bears had to convert only two third downs on the drive and got to 18 plays when you include three kneel-downs by Dalton and Santos’ kick. The Bears have had only one possession with more plays since 2001 and only three other 18-play drives.
Dalton was 4 of 6 for 39 yards on the drive and also picked up 9 yards on a firstand-10 scramble. The key play came on third-and-5 from the Bears 37-yard line. Right tackle Larry Borom gave up a pressure right away, and Dalton was able to react and extend the play. He’s never going to challenge Justin Fields with his athletic ability, but Dalton has a feel
for the pocket and slid to his right before Damiere Byrd sprung free and they connected for a 13-yard gain to midfield.
“I mean, you get in that situation, that drive was so important for us, however it happened,” Dalton said. “It’s all about getting points. But to go 18 plays and to run the clock out with 8 minutes left is huge. To get down and get into that position where we were able to kick the field goal at the end, it’s just a testament to our guys’ no-quit attitude and finding a way to get it done.”
Taking 8:30 off the clock marked the third-longest possession of the Matt Nagy era. The Bears had a 9:38 scoring drive in the Week 1 opener against the Los Angeles Rams and a 9:05 possession in a 24-10 victory at Minnesota on Dec. 30, 2018.
The long drive kept the defense — which allowed game-winning drives in the final minute the last two times out — from having to go back on the field.
“I said I don’t expect to go back out there because I think our offense is about to run this clock out,” outside linebacker Robert Quinn said. “So I kept my sweat pants and beanie on and sat on the sideline and watched the offense close the game out. That was a great feeling. After the nonsense everyone had heard and the five-game skid, you know it’s just good to close out the game how we did.”