NEWSLETTER
If you were among those who were begging the Bears to incorporate designed quarterback runs, increase RPO usage, pump up the number of play-action calls, and not put quarterback Mitch Trubisky in the shotgun, Matt Nagy gave you what you wanted more often than not in last night’s game against the Chiefs.
And while the post isn’t about Trubisky and the offense’s general inability to put up points, the squad’s prime-time cratering (yet again) served as a cold reminder that Chicago’s head coach isn’t blameless in this dreadful offensive season.
Three points.
Three lousy, stinkin’ points.
That’s all the Bears scored against the Chiefs. And it’s all they scored against the Packers 109 days ago when the season started. I’m all for things being cyclical, but this ain’t it.
This wasn’t supposed to be the offense, but it was exactly what it turned out to be. More than three months after opening the year with a whimper, Chicago’s offense has shown no progress or growth, merely flashes of what probably, maybe could be.
I mean, really: what has changed in the time that’s passed since the season began back in September and when the home slate of game closed on Sunday evening? We’re still talking about an offense and a unit that moved without rhythm or purpose. This is still an undisciplined group that made costly penalties that put the team behind the sticks too often. The offensive line struggled in all facets of the blocking scheme in Week 1, Week 16, and all the weeks in between. Drops that plagued pass-catchers early in the season were problematic once again on Sunday night. And what’s the deal with the running game?
In the end, we can point at any number of reasons why the Bears’ offense self-destructed in front of a nationally televised audience. Ultimately, though, all arrows should point to the head coach. Good coaching puts players in the best position to be successful. Good coaching adapts. Good coaching steers development. But clearly, most of that didn’t happen (at least not with any consistency) in a season in which essentially everyone not named Allen Robinson saw their production take a step back from 2018. And while the quarterback will take a brunt of the heat, the play-caller needs to wear it, too
To be clear, I don’t want to play the blame game. Doing so gets us no closer to finding suitable answers. Instead, my end game at this point of the year to unearth all parties who were responsible for 2019 being the disappointment it was, while trying to figure out how things can change for the better next year.
We have a long offseason ahead of us, so we won’t dive all the way down that rabbit hole just yet. But it has to be written now that Nagy needs to go back to the drawing board with his offense. Because if he is stubborn enough to believe his team is a quarterback away from being where it was last year, there is a good chance we’ll be having this discussion at this time next year.
