Matt Nagy knows he must keep the mentality of always looking ahead. Thinking about the past does nothing for the present. Even so, he’s still a human being. He can’t help but think about those moments in his Chicago Bears coaching career that stick with him. So one can imagine the entire 2019 season is something he’d rather not dwell on.

Yet he’ll never learn from his mistakes if he doesn’t. So is there any particular moment that sticks with him to this day? Yes, as it turns out. Nagy spoke with Bears play-by-play man Jeff Joniak on the Chicago Bears Coaches Show. He was asked if anything happened last year that resonated with him. Something he hadn’t thought of before that proved to be an invaluable learning experience.

There was, and it came during arguably the toughest loss of the season.

“After we get back from London, from playing the Raiders, that was a rough game for us. That was a fistfight and we didn’t win that. We got beat up. Coaches, players, everybody. They physically beat us up. There were poor play calls and there was poor execution.

So what I decided to do the day after we got back was take every one of those play calls, take every one of those poor execution plays and had the whole team get together and in front of everybody called each other out.

Effort-wise, we called each other out. Play-call wise…I told them this is a terrible play. Not a good play call. Could’ve been better. I should’ve been better. Chuck (Pagano), bad play call right here. You could’ve been better. Players, right here. No effort. You’re better than that.”

Matt Nagy changed the way he coached after that

That trip was an ugly one for the Bears. Everything seemed to go wrong. Mitch Trubisky was already out with his shoulder injury. Then they lose Akiem Hicks just minutes into the game with an elbow issue. Oakland basically ran the ball right down their throats most of the game. Something that never happened to this defense in years. The offense was also stuck in neutral, unable to move the ball.

Down 17-0 at the half, it looked over already. Yet despite all of that, the Bears roared back in the second half, scoring 21 unanswered points to take the lead. Sadly, a gaffe on special teams with six minutes left enabled the Raiders to sustain a drive on 4th down that led to the game-winning touchdown. It was a brutal way to lose a game. One could argue Chicago never recovered from it.

Prior to that they were 3-1 to start the season. After it, they finished 5-7 the rest of the way. It’s little wonder that one sticks with Nagy. He later explained that the players loved how he held them accountable after the loss. Something he hadn’t expected. A valuable lesson he plans to fully employ this year.