Matt Nagy is a man under siege right now. His team is coming off its second straight loss by double digits. This one was a 38-3 disaster against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where his offense once again looked completely lost and ineffective. Justin Fields struggled, committing five turnovers and getting sacked four times. Despite another good day from the running game. How is that even possible? All of it seems to come back to the same issue. A lack of answers. Left tackle Jason Peters provided a perfect example.
During his press conference on Tuesday, the nine-time Pro Bowler talked about how guys need to be ready each week due to the ongoing issue with the COVID-19 outbreak. The latest example is the loss of Elijah Wilkinson, their starting right tackle, shortly before kickoff. This thrust second-year man Lachavious Simmons into the role. No problem. He probably got some work during the week just in case, right?
Nope. According to Peters, Simmons had zero preparation for that scenario.
The results that followed were predictable. Matched up against star Buccaneers pass rusher Shaq Barrett, Simmons was thoroughly abused for much of the game. The Bears coaches compounded this egregious error by rarely giving him any help in the form of a tight end or chipping running back. The kid was left on an island to fend for himself. Eventually, the Bears resorted to benching him and inserting Alex Bars instead.
This entire fiasco feeds into a growing narrative around head coach Matt Nagy and his staff. When things don’t go exactly according to plan, they have zero contingencies available. Just look at the history. The coach constantly changing quarterbacks rather than molding his system to better fit the talent on his roster. Giving every starter rep to Andy Dalton in training camp and none to Fields. Never bothering to consider the possibility a guy could get hurt in the NFL. The offense grinding to a half when forced to deviate from the script. Now this.
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Jason Peters shined another light on this undoubted problem
Allen Robinson already did the same in that same press conference, citing the lack of reps in camp with Fields as a reason for their lack of chemistry. It seems like everything Nagy has done this calendar year has been exactly the wrong thing. Now the Bears are paying the price for his negligence and lack of preparation. This is not something that should be an issue for a head coach in the NFL.
Yet as Jason Peters and others have begun to point out, it very much is. One of the cardinal sins of a head coach is not having his team prepared to play. Too many times now it has been clearly evident the Bears weren’t ready from the moment a game kicks off. How many more times must they get humiliated before this gets addressed?
Only George McCaskey can answer that.
Thus far he hasn’t said anything since January. Given the track record of this ownership, no move on Nagy will happen until after the regular season concludes. So he has 10 games left to somehow change this growing narrative about him.