After a weekend apart, Bears coach Matt Nagy and his offensive players looked to make peace in the aftermath of his fiery criticism of virtually every aspect on that side of the ball.
Nagy took a softer tone and spoke in generalities, as opposed to the direct shots he leveled at sloppy route running, inaccurate passes and poor blocking when his emotions ran hot and unfiltered the morning after upsetting the Buccaneers 20-19. And some players said they were fine with him unloading on them.
“Yeah, as he should,” wide receiver Allen Robinson said.
“He’s completely right,” right guard Germain Ifedi added.
It’s commonplace for coaches to vent like Nagy and then change very little, and he talked around the issues when asked if future playing time depended on players getting on board with the demands laid out in his public critique Friday and again in a team meeting Monday.
“The frustration that I felt ... was more on just overall details,” he said. “It wasn’t so much specific personnel or certain plays, per se. ... It’s just more of the big picture is where I’m coming from, and they understand it.”
So everything’s fine now that they all have their talking points aligned? It’s back to being everyone’s fault, but no one specifically?
Nagy was closer to the truth when he let it rip.
But the reason that rants like his ultimately seem flat is because coaches usually don’t have many options to make personnel changes. Nagy is no different. The guys he has kept on the bench are there because he’s certain they won’t do any better.
As the Bears prepare for their game at Carolina on Sunday, they’re doing so with a depleted offensive line, they’ve already made a quarterback change and there’s little wiggle room with wide receiver snaps.
And while Nagy remembered to include his play calling in the list of problems that ail the Bears’ offense, this came after an offseason dedicated to committing to run. It’s fair to mention the Bears have played from behind nearly 70% of the time so far, but here are the early results from the ground game: they’re 29th in carries per game and 17th in yards per rush.
They ran 16 times in the loss to the Colts and 14 times against the Bucs for a combined average of 2.1 yards per carry. The Bears are the only NFL team with multiple games rushing 16 times or fewer.
“I have a lot of faith in our run game — I really do,” Nagy said. “There is no panic at all. For me, that part is exciting to figure out ways to get it back on track.”
This week is a convenient time to do so. While the Panthers are better than projected at 3-2, they’re in a rebuild and no longer have five-time all-pro Luke Kuechly at middle linebacker. They have allowed the second-most yards per carry in the NFL at 5.4.
As Nagy, who set the franchise record for fewest rushes in a game last season with seven, fights the ongoing internal conflict over running the ball, the Bears’ passing game isn’t exactly a well-oiled machine.
Nick Foles has been a marginal improvement over Mitch Trubisky so far, and their collective 85.4 passer rating ranks 26th. The Bears average the fifth-fewest yards per pass (6.2) after sitting last in 2019 and 17th in 2018.
Who to blame for those shortfalls is always a moving target, but the point is there’s a lot to fix. The Bears are strong enough defensively to meander their way to the playoffs, but there’s still a ton of work to do if they want to make a run.
