Anybody who understands the psychology of the Chicago Bears knew what might happen last night. No team moves the needle in either direction like the Green Bay Packers. Beating them often propels the team to its greatest seasons. Losing to them leads to change. Many regimes found that out the hard way. Now it appears Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace are about to discover the same because George McCaskey has reached his breaking point.
The Sunday night debacle at Lambeau Field was hardly surprising but no less difficult to watch. At two points the Bears trailed 27-3 and 41-10 before garbage time allowed them to cover up the ugliness with a couple of touchdowns. The defense looked like they called it a night after the opening drive. Mitch Trubisky returned on offense and immediately started turning it over like usual. It was the letdown nobody wanted but everybody expected.
People are fed up. The Bears are a joke.
Will McCaskey do anything? One thing is for sure. His blood pressure has reached a new level. According to a source, the team chairman is “fed up” and has essentially reached the point of no return on the current state of this team. That includes its head coach and GM. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune echoed a similar sentiment in his recent column.
“What’s that mean for Pace and Nagy? I don’t know just yet, but I get the distinct impression things are trending badly for both. A longtime agent who represents coaches said he wasn’t too surprised about the four openings around the league right now and said he doesn’t think there will be too many more.”
Does this mean McCaskey will follow the growing trend of firing the head coach and/or GM before the season ends? That isn’t clear. Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn were fired two days after losing in the exact same fashion to Houston. Bill O’Brien was fired barely a day after losing to the Vikings. So if it’s going to happen, it will happen either today or tomorrow.
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"The Chicago Bears hibernate in a den of hopelessness."
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— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) November 30, 2020
George McCaskey may wait but changes are coming
Nagy is 1-5 against the Packers. Pace is 2-9. The GM now needs the Bears to go 4-1 the rest of the way just to avoid another non-winning season. It would be his fifth in six years. Nagy’s offense has gone from 21st to 29th and now 31st. These guys sold people on their ability to build a consistent winner. Instead, they’ve gone in the opposite direction. That isn’t what good head coaches and GMs do.
People aren’t anxious for another regime change but the fact is there isn’t any other choice. These two aren’t equipped to lead this team where it wants to go. Pace can’t find a quarterback and even if he could Nagy has shown he might not be able to get the most out of him anyway. George McCaskey has to make changes.
When players quit on a guy? There’s no saving him.
This feels like a matter of when the decision is made, not if. McCaskey has the spotlight squarely on him moving forward. Does he have the guts to try something truly different this time around or will it be pretty much the same process seen over the past 10 years? A process that led to one playoff appearance in a decade. A process that turned a charter franchise into a laughingstock.