All the Chicago Bears had to do was not completely blow it. They had a 5-1 record. Just go 5-5 the rest of the way and they’d be virtually guaranteed a playoff spot. Except it never works that way with this team. What has followed is unequivocally the biggest in-season collapse this franchise has ever experienced. Six-straight losses now and perhaps the two most brutal yet in the previous two weeks. How bad? Enough to seriously believe that Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace may not finish the season.
The Bears ownership has never fired a coach or GM in the middle of a season before. George McCaskey isn’t one to believe in that approach, preferring to let men finish what they start. Yet after what he’s seen, it is no doubt becoming difficult to justify keeping Nagy and Pace employed. A 41-25 loss in Green Bay? Now coughing up a 23-13 lead in the second half to lose 34-30 with a late collapse to a Lions team missing several starters and having fired their own head coach.
There is no explaining that away.
This team has gone completely off the rails. McCaskey was reportedly furious after the Packers loss. This one closed the door on any prayer those two men had of saving their skins. What ownership needs to figure out now is whether there is any point to even keeping them around. Other teams have already gotten a head start in their head coach and GM searches.
The best thing for the Bears to do is get a head start on next year. Start with sending a message by showing those two the door. A clear sign that what has happened this year is unacceptable and nobody will be safe next offseason. No matter how much past credibility they have or how much they’re getting paid.
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Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace only have themselves to blame
For Pace, his Bears tombstone will be etched with his failures on offense. The inability to build a quality offensive line and especially the failure to find a quarterback. That Mitch Trubisky pick in 2017 will be his legacy since he’s unlikely to ever be a GM again after this. As for Nagy? His rigid and inflexible offensive system coupled with his own stubbornness played an integral part in how far this team has fallen from its peak in 2018.
One can easily make a case he wasn’t ready for the job. He’d only been an offensive coordinator for two years. He’d called plays for barely a quarter of that. Yet he still felt he was ready to make the jump, believing he could be that next Andy Reid. Only to find out that NFL defenses have no mercy on guys who think they have all the answers.
He may get another shot someday but this is a stink that will be hard to escape.
Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace aren’t bad guys. They had the right ideas and came across as classy men. Yet this is a bottom-line business. If you don’t win and don’t produce? You won’t last long. Now both are all but gone and probably sooner than later.