Chicago Bears: The good, bad, and ugly from Week 14 loss to Packers
The Ugly: Coaching
At this point of the season, it may feel like we are just ganging up on head coach Matt Nagy. It seems that he gets blamed for everything that happens. That isn’t true, though. Not everything is his fault, but a bulk of the Chicago Bears’ troubles are his responsibility.
This team just doesn’t look very prepared to compete week in and week out. Even when they played the winless (at the time) Detroit Lions twice, they struggled offensively and defensively.
This was the first time since Week 16 that the Bears scored 30 points. That game was against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Keep in mind, however, that despite having their best offensive performance in about an entire calendar year, they still got blown out. Also, they owned a 10-point lead twice, yet finished losing by 15 points.
As I mentioned, the offense scored just two touchdowns and had to depend on the special teams unit just to lose by two touchdowns.
Nagy’s coaching continues to let the team down. Everyone knew going into the game that the Bears had to score touchdowns and not field goals to keep up with the Packers. On their second drive of the game, they had a fourth down on the Packers’ five-yard line. He decided to go for a field goal instead of trying to score a touchdown.
The Packers were in the same situation. On fourth and goal, they went for it and scored a touchdown.
The Bears were 4-8 yet Nagy continues to call a conservative game plan. At this point, there is nothing to lose to play aggressively.
Nagy again played conservatively in the fourth quarter. On fourth and inches on their own 36 and about 13 minutes remaining, Nagy decided to punt. The Bears were only down 11 and a score would put them within one score. Also, knowing how Rodgers had his offense running smoothly, another score would finish the Bears.
The Bears punted the ball instead of going for it. Rodgers got the ball and marched the offense 71 yards and took 8:38 off the clock. The drive culminated in a touchdown and whatever hopes the Bears had were dashed.
We saw how different the second half was from the first. The Bears scored just three points in the second half after 27 in the first. We saw how the Packers made adjustments while the Bears didn’t. That is on Nagy.
We saw in this game all the evidence that screams for Nagy to not only be fired but also be fired before the end of the season. Let Bill Lazor take over and see what he can do with this team for the rest of the season. Everyone knows what the end result of this season will be but the McCaskeys will take this to the end, unfortunately.