NEWSLETTER
I usually watch the press conferences that follow gut-punching losses in hopes to hear comforting words from a coach who’s seeing what I’m seeing. And while I got that – in part – from Matt Nagy on Sunday night and again on Monday morning, his words left me feeling … a bit off.
Because while I did, of course, expect Nagy to call out his team after last night’s performance, I didn’t expect him to call out the defense so strongly in the process:
“I think that the thing that I start off with is what started on the beginning of the game for them to go on this 14-play drive, 75 yards, for them to go down and score, that’s not who we are as a defense. And so when you look at this thing big picture they had basically three drives and around 36 plays and 22 out of those 36 plays were five-plus yards. That can’t happen. And our defensive guys know that. You have to be able to shut them down and not allow 16 first downs in 36 plays, five of six on third downs and three touchdown drives. That’s not who our defense is. And our guys, they need to understand where we’re coming from with that and how we feed off of them as a defense. They’ve done a hell of a job all year long but yesterday was not where we need to be.”
To be fair, the defense laid an egg last night. And when your team’s success is rooted in leaning on the defense, that group needs to play better than it did at the outset. HOWEVA … this defense has carried more than its share of the weight for the better part of three years. So to go this hard on that group is pretty ballsy. After all, the defense can counter Nagy’s expectations by simply saying You have to be able to score some points in the first and third quarters before a game gets totally out of hand.
Hey, it works both ways!
Nagy feels he can talk that way about his defense publicly because (1) it’s not anything they didn’t hear last night from him and (2) because they’re “big boys” who can handle it. Sure, I get it. Some people can take it when someone comes down hard on them. Others can’t.
But it’s still telling that Nagy believes he can talk that way about the defense. Especially since it has carried his water since his arrival. Moreover, it speaks volumes that he can’t talk that way about the offense. When asked why the offense can’t do things like how Packers get Davante Adams and Allen Lazard open, Nagy deflected. He said “a lot goes into it” and “I don’t want to talk about it.” Yikes.
To be clear, Nagy didn’t just call out the defense. Everyone is on notice at Halas Hall:
“I know this: We better wake our tails up. Every freaking coach on the staff, every player, better wake up and start understanding where we’re at. Have some personal pride. Have a freaking sense of urgency. Know where we’re at. Have some pride into who we’re playing for and why we do this and then go find a way to win as a team. That’s my challenge to every single person in that building this week is that.”
Multiple “freakings” in one quote? Oh, dear! It sounds like business is about to pick up at Halas Hall.
But is it too little too late? This is where I’d usually say that the next five games should tell us everything we need to know. But I feel like the last 27 games — in which the Bears are 13-14 — have told us that.
