Written by: John Stocco
Twitter: @realJohnStocco
I mean, I have no idea what to say about this team anymore. In the world we live in, everyone wants to place blame on a specific person. No matter what subject, or what scenario, there is always someone looking to place the blame elsewhere. That’s life, that’s sports, and that’s where the Chicago Bears are at right now. Here’s what the Bears need to do, blame themselves. Everybody in the Chicago Bears organization needs to be held accountable for what has happened to this team. Last year was magical. 12-4, a brilliant coach, an elite defense, a hopeful franchise quarterback, and young talent around the team that can develop under a new and more sophisticated coaching staff. That is now all gone. Our coach has been figured out, our defense has shown signs of regression, our quarterback has turned into the worst in the league, and the talent on this team isn’t getting better. What happened to the Chicago Bears?
Sunday night against the Rams was a loser leaves town match. With the Eagles and Panthers losing, a win for the Bears and the Rams would still keep them in the hunt for a shot at the second wild card in the NFC. The Rams won in a game that seemed like it didn’t even matter for them, and the Bears season looks all but finished. I think we all saw it coming, right? No Cooks, no Woods, two offensive linemen were out, of course, the Rams were going to walk out the winners. First let’s get to the good news, and trust me, it won’t be much. The monsters showed up on Sunday night. The Bears' defense played some of their football all season. People are going to comment on Khalil Mack not having much of an impact, well when you don’t have Akiem Hicks, and all the pressure is on you to make stops, while you’re getting triple-teamed, or held on every single play, then yeah it might be hard to make a few stops. Khalil Mack isn’t getting worse, and the league hasn’t figured him out either. It’s offenses throwing everything at Mack to stop him, and nobody else on the defense is stepping up to help him out. Now back to my point, the defense played great on Sunday and we saw what made them elite. Hard-hitting, crashing the pocket and causing turnovers. The defense showed up, and again, the offense left them hanging.
Before I get into the offense, I want to say that I think it’s incredibly unfair to suggest that Matt Nagy faked Mitch Trubisky’s hip injury to bench him in the fourth quarter. That is BS, and it needs to end. I’m tired of everyone wanting to put this solely on Matt Nagy while giving Mitch Trubisky a pass. When it’s all said and done, would you rather have a 100% Chase Daniel or an injured Mitch Trubisky in the fourth quarter? It’s a 100% Chase Daniel because the difference between Trubisky and Daniel isn’t as big as we all like to believe. Now getting into the offense. Matt Nagy’s play-calling has been questionable, Mitch Trubisky has been the farthest thing from a competent quarterback, but it doesn’t help when receivers are dropping balls, and tipping passes. It sure as hell doesn’t help when the offensive line is getting blown up every single snap. The effort we’re seeing from our receivers, besides Allen Robinson, and our offensive line is a flat out embarrassment. I won’t even blame Ryan Pace if every one of our draft picks in 2020 is a wide receiver and offensive linemen. Mitch Trubisky is struggling, it doesn’t help to see his receivers give him zero help. Matt Nagy is struggling to get the running game going, it doesn’t help that the offensive line is blown back 2 yards on literally every play. It’s a mess, and it’s going to take an entire offseason to fix it.
Now onto Mitch Trubisky and Matt Nagy. I really don’t understand why people went crazy when Chase Daniel came onto the field. For one, Nagy was saving Trubisky. Not for next week, but he was saving Trubisky from the media, from the fans, and from a more serious injury. For two, do you really think Mitch Trubisky was going to lead the Bears to a fourth-quarter comeback? He was bad. The first half he was good, but thanks to Eddy Pineiro the Bears dug themselves a six-foot grave. The second half was flat out awful. What happened, was that the Bears this summer needed to cut their playbook in half. The league figured out Nagy’s gimmicks, Trubisky couldn’t take that next step, and Matt Nagy had to go back to square one. Last year the offense was really good with a lot of tricks because Mitch Trubisky couldn’t do the simple things. Those tricks don’t work anymore, and Matt Nagy is left with adjusting his entire playbook while developing a quarterback that can’t do the basic things right. All of this is happening while the offensive line is a dumpster fire, the receivers aren’t doing their jobs, and the defense potentially quitting on the entire system. The sky is falling in Chicago.
There’s still more to come, and it could get uglier. What if Trubisky could have played? What if Ryan Pace gave Matt Nagy the okay? What if Nagy quit on Trubisky? This a story that sadly isn’t going away until answers are found with the head coach, and the quarterback.