Matt Nagy and the Chicago Bears are coming off a much-needed bye week that helped slow the bleeding from a four-game losing streak that rendered the Bears 5-5 after beginning the season with an impressive 5-1 record.
The Bears limped into the bye week. Literally. Both Nick Foles and Mitch Trubisky are recovering from injuries; David Montgomery was in the NFL’s concussion protocol; Akiem Hicks was battered and bruised.
The week off certainly helped those injuries heal, but it also helped Nagy step back and evaluate where his team is at, especially on offense.
“The biggest thing I think we took away [from the bye] is understanding schematically where we’re at,” Nagy said. “These weeks go by so fast that you get this four-day break and you’re able to pull back and look underneath all the layers of where you are across the league. Third down . . . red zone . . . the run game. You have to be able to come up with answers and solve that and be better the rest of the season.
“That’s where you rely on your coaching staff and your players. We’ve got to coach better, and they have to play better. That’s what it comes down to.”
It’s hard to take Nagy seriously at this point, isn’t it? He repeats the same answers whenever the Bears are in crisis mode. He’s on an eternal quest to find solutions, yet they never seem to come. And if the best he can come up with during the bye week is that his staff has to coach better and his players have to play better? It’s going to be a rough final six games.