As Bears coach Matt Nagy tried to rally his team after a brutal 41-25 loss to the Packers on Sunday night, he seemed certain of one thing: He had not lost the locker room.
While it might be true that players haven’t quit, the atmosphere is far from happy.
In the aftermath of the defeat, probably before the team had even made it home, wide receiver Anthony Miller offered a succinct, accurate synopsis of the game — and the season — on Twitter: “[Expletive] embarrassing.”
Miller, who has seen his playing time cut in favor of fifth-round pick Darnell Mooney, didn’t do much to help the Bears avoid that humiliation with three catches for 28 yards. But he’s entitled to his opinion.
Speaking of Bears wide receivers on Twitter, Allen Robinson spent part of his time after the game liking tweets from fans pleading with him to join the 49ers, Packers or Saints if he hits free agency this offseason. Robinson undid that once it circulated on various blogs.
After leading the team with eight catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns, Robinson backed Nagy for doing “about as best as a coach [can]” despite the Bears being mired in a five-game losing streak.
“There’s only so much you can do,” Robinson said. “But I think he’s handled it well.”
Robinson somehow has put together a Pro Bowl-worthy season with 71 catches, 829 yards and five touchdowns while the Bears rank 27th in the NFL in team passer rating. He has accounted for 27.6% of their total yardage.
Santos shines
There isn’t much this duo has nailed this season, but Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace made a great call by bringing in kicker Cairo Santos.
After three years of bouncing among several teams and with his career appearing to be over, Santos has solved a major problem for the Bears. His 27-yard field goal against the Packers boosted him to 90% for the season, which ranks 13th in the league.
He is one of five kickers to hit 90% or more on field goals and 100% on extra points.
The Bears have never had a kicker finish a season at 90% or better. Robbie Gould has their season record with 89.7% in 2008 and 2013.
Offensive line holds up
Nagy was pleased that left tackle Charles Leno was able to play through a toe injury that kept him out of practice last week, and it didn’t get any worse during the game.
Given how happy Nagy was with Leno’s unit after a game in which the Bears rushed for 122 yards — “Our offensive line played their [butt] off,” he said — it’s likely he’ll keep that lineup intact.
The Bears started Leno, Cody Whitehair at left guard, Sam Mustipher at center, Alex Bars at right guard and Germain Ifedi at right tackle
Leno’s holding and false start were the only penalties by the offensive line for the game.
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