If Matt Nagy Can't Create Urgency For Bears Now, Will He Ever?

Chicago IL

15 November, 2020

10:23 PM

Description

CHICAGO — Much like the 13-3 regular season and NFC North Division championship that Matt Nagy produced during his first season at the helm of the Chicago Bears what seems much longer than two years ago, the energetic burst out of the gates that produced so much excitement this fall along the Lakefront has been swept away in a wave of mediocrity. When the Bears won five of their first six games despite a shift at quarterback after Mitch Trubisky was benched in favor of Nick Foles, talk that Nagy's team could again find its championship swagger began to build. But now, in the midst of a three-game losing streak and with Foles struggling to run an offense that has sputtered like an aging engine that has been counted on one too many times, the Bears — and Nagy's ability to get his team back to the road to sustaining winning football — appears to be in question. Should they run their skid to four games Monday night against a Vikings team that has won two straight games after losing five of their first six, the Bears will require some serious soul-searching heading into their bye week. With Chicago's offense flailing regardless of who is at quarterback, Nagy begrudgingly surrendered his play-calling duties last week in the days after a 24-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans in which the Bears managed only three points until late in the fourth quarter. The Bears offense, which will again be without running back David Montgomery Monday night, is been off for weeks now and has become stale and predictable. The Bears rank 29th in the NFL in total yardage, last in rushing yards, 31st in yards per play, and 29th in points, averaging 19.8 per game. With a once-feared defense that has been relied on way too much now looking more like a shell of its former self, whether Nagy handing off the play-calling responsibilities to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor is enough to refocus him on his head coaching duties and to get the Bears back on track remains to be seen. Nagy hasn't committed to making the move permanent but said at this point, he is willing to do what he needs to in order to spark some energy. Whether that begins to happen Monday night against the Vikings is also unknown, but even by Nagy's own reasoning, something had to change. "We're at a point right now at 5-4 where we have a division game against a good football team in the division," Nagy told reporters Saturday. "Right now, with the way things have gone, losing three games, we're willing to do whatever we need to do collectively together to get that win." He added: "Our guys know, trust me, we've made it a big point this week that this is where we're at, this is what we're set up for and we control it. We really do. So what are we going to do about it?" If the Bears don't do anything about it Monday night, the question may become one of whether the team's ownership family, led by Virginia McCaskey is willing to do anything about it. With two games still remaining against the first-place and rival Green Bay Packers, if the Bears fall to 5-5 with a loss to the Vikings heading into the bye week and with the Packers looming a week later, all options has to be put on the table, or so it would seem. General manager Ryan Pace has avoided much of the fallout after the Bears regressed to 8-8 last season and as the offense has gotten progressively worse over the past three weeks. While Nagy's ability to steer the ship back on course will be continue to be tested over the next several weeks, Pace – the executive charged with overseeing the team's makeup – must, at some point, be held accountable for this team got here two years removed from that 13-3 regular season that seemed to indicate Nagy was the right coach to bring championships back to Soldier Field. Perhaps the Bears' recent struggles were temporarily pushed off of center stage when new White Sox manager Tony La Russa's DUI charges and the team's decision to hire him anyway came to light last week. But if the Bears again falter on Monday night – this time with no other NFL games or any other city-centric sports headline to shield them, a team that started the season with so much promise only to allow it to wash away as just another also-ran will have no place to hide. And neither will those responsible for what the team looks like both for the rest of the season and moving forward, which means Nagy's question bears repeating: What are he and his team going to do about it? "We talk about belief, we talk about trust," Nagy said of surrendering his play-calling responsibilities to Lazor. "I talk about that all the time with the players. Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe in your teammates? Do you believe in your coaches? Do you trust your coaches? "Well, (surrendering play-calling is) showing my trust and my belief in our coaches. Is it going to perfect? No. Is every call going to be great? No. But that's OK. And we'll work through that." How patient the Bears' decision-makers are willing to be with that may be a different matter all together.