Best Laid-Plans Go By The Losing Wayside For Bears' Matt Nagy

Chicago IL

09 January, 2022

6:06 PM

Description

CHICAGO — As always, Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy had the very best intentions when he said last week that his team's offense was going to have some fun in Sunday's meaningless season finale. But as has been the case more times than not during his four years at the Halas Hall helm, things didn't work out as Nagy planned. Sunday's 31-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings wasn't especially fun for anyone involved with the Bears franchise. The loss, in which the Vikings rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit, not only mercifully brought to an end a long and disappointing season but was likely the last we've seen of Nagy on the Soldier Field sideline. A mandatory players meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday when the team will most likely be told that Nagy, and perhaps general manager, is no longer employed by one of the NFL's founding franchises and that a search has begun to find someone to change the culture of a one-proud football team. Again. In a telling sign, the Bears on Sunday night sent out an email to media members with the media availability for players on Monday. It included the following: "Postseason media availability for GM Ryan Pace and Head Coach Matt Nagy will be announced at a later time." Yet, Sunday's loss was a fitting end to the Nagy era. In scenarios that have played out throughout the past three seasons, the Bears again squandered away chances in the red zone and bungled five of six fourth down-and-short opportunities in which Nagy's inability to get out of his own way and call a play that would work in that situation added to the demise of his football team. Instead, it was more of the same, more of Nagy being Nagy. The final straw came with the Bears trailing 24-17 and facing fourth-and-short. Rather than rely on David Montgomery to find a way to run for a yard, Nagy drew up a play that resulted in Andy Dalton throwing an interception that was returned for a 66-yard touchdown that laughingly cemented the loss and a 6-11 finish to the season. At the end of the day, the decision to cut Nagy loose won't come down to the question of Nagy being a good guy. He is. For 16 minutes after Sunday's loss, he patiently and answered every question — very few of which had anything to do with Sunday's loss and most of which were answered thoughtfully and went deeper than X's and O's. Nagy's failings in Chicago weren't for a lack of trying, but as Nagy pointed out in his postgame news conference, his tenure will ultimately be judged by wins and losses, which will turn out to be a 34-31 score in his favor by the time everything is said and done. But clearly, that's not good enough. The decision to fire Nagy on Monday isn't a question of his players not liking him or being willing to play hard for him. By all accounts, they liked him just fine and never stopped trying to win for him. But in a profession that comes down to winning games and putting your team in contention to at least compete for championships, Nagy didn't do enough of the former and never came close to the latter. For all of his optimism and his best-laid plans, Nagy failed to execute what he promised to deliver and to build off of his first season when it seemed the team's ownership finally had a coach that could return the Bears back to winning football. The Bears this season gave Nagy to build his future around in Justin Fields and for all of his intentions to develop the rookie into a franchise quarterback that could help lead the Bears back to a Super Bowl, that plan — like much of everything else Nagy touched during his four years here — never came to fruition. While circumstances certainly didn't do Nagy any favors, he bears too much of the responsibility for what has happened and needs to be told his services are no longer required. And by the time it was all said and done, it wasn't much fun for anyone involved. No matter what Matt Nagy hoped it would be.