Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy embracing the pain of losing
While many people want the Chicago Bears to forget the painful playoff loss of last season, head coach Matt Nagy wants them to remember that pain and use it as motivation.
The Chicago Bears had a magical season in 2018. While many experts expected the team to finish with another losing record and a probable last-place finish in the NFC North again, the Bears shocked them by going 12-4 and winning the division.
Of course, as we all remember, the season ended in a double-doink heartbreak. The team and its fans had all the air knocked out of them, especially when seeing the two teams in the Super Bowl. They dominated the Los Angeles Rams and took the New England Patriots all the way to the end and gave them all they could handle. Now we are in the 2019 season and the Bears need to move on, right?
Well, the Bears might be moving on, but they aren’t forgetting about what happened. Head coach Matt Nagy won’t let them forget. There are people out there saying it’s time to forget that loss. They feel if the team continues to harp on it it’ll affect them negatively this season. Nagy disagrees, however.
Nearly all the players who experienced that loss are still on the team. He wants them to use that loss as a motivational tool, saying the following, per Pro Football Talk:
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"“We’re a young team and we’ve tried to build this culture and let them understand how important it is that we stay together and that we learn from our mistakes. Last year it ends up being a loss to Philly at home, and that’s not good enough. So our guys are hungry. We talk about remember the hurt, we talk about don’t get complacent.”"
Nagy is focusing more on the last word of this quote. People can say it’s time to move on, Nagy wants to avoid the team getting complacent. He doesn’t want them to go in resting on their laurels and expecting another great season.
They went into last season trying to prove that they belonged among the top Super Bowl contenders. While many critics feel they’ll regress in 2019, the Bears are a popular pick to go to the Super Bowl. Nagy doesn’t want the players to believe their hype and expect to walk into another playoff berth.
If the players remember the loss, there won’t be any complacency. They were flying high at the time of the playoff game. They won nine of their final 10 games (the lone loss against an unbelievable overtime defeat at the hands of a very bad New York Giants team). Then, suddenly, it was all over.
The suddenness of that loss should stay with the players. I’m sure that many of them felt they’d make a long playoff run and probably get into the Super Bowl. Instead, everything came crashing down in the first round. Nagy wants to ensure they remember that and know that the season could be one play from being destroyed.
This is why some of the top players on the team came out with some bold statements and talking about greatness. Linebacker Khalil Mack looks to be among the greatest defensive players of all-time. He’s at the top of his game, yet trains like he’s a player on the bubble of making the roster.
Akiem Hicks dismisses all the talk about regression. He feels the players decide how much better or worse they can be, not what the so-called “experts” believe (via Yahoo):
"“It’s up to us to decide, whether or not we want to be as dominant as we were last year… We can be as dominant as we want to be. It’s just a matter of us taking the time out of everything else and sacrificing to make our team and our defense and our offense one of the best to play this game.”"
Safety Eddie Jackson goes even further. He knows how great and beloved the 1985 Chicago Bears are. He recently went out on a limb and said this version of the Bears’ defense wants to surpass everything that team did and win the Super Bowl as well, per CBS Sports.
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The critics can say all they want but Matt Nagy wants to do all he can to avoid complacency on the team. The players will keep their edge throughout the season and do their best to make sure they’re the last ones standing at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.