Following an impressive 2018 season that included a 12-4 record and postseason berth, many had the Chicago Bears pegged as Super Bowl contenders in 2019.
But the Bears couldn’t replicate that same magic from a year ago. Coupled with injury struggles and one of the NFL’s worst offenses, Chicago stumbled to a 8-8 record and third place finish in the NFC North.
While most analysts don’t expect much from the Bears this season, there’s still pressure for this team to win a championship with this dominant defense. Bears head coach Matt Nagy certainly understands the pressure and sense of urgency to win this season.
“We all understand that every year is different,” Nagy said, via ChicagoBears.com. “It’s been a really interesting journey for us. In 2018, to come in with no quote-unquote expectations or standards for our team, we were young and I think what they realized is that every single day we need to be able to put out our best. We stayed very healthy and we had a lot of success. There was a lot of swag within our team, there was a lot of fun. You saw that creativity with bringing in defensive guys down in the red zone and the goal line, and we were successful with it.
“Now, all of a sudden you go to 2019 and we struggled more as a team. We’ve got fans in the city that are very passionate, very loyal, they care. Their care factor is extremely high. We would not want it any other way, and we’re going to do everything we can … myself as a head coach, I need to be vulnerable and understand that it starts with me and whatever I didn’t do good enough in 2019 I need to fix. So I look that thing dead on and I understand that’s what we’re going to do. It starts with details. Details, details, details. ‘Attack’ and ‘aggressive’ are words that we’re using a lot. And trust. We’ve had two years of a great culture now. We never gave up after losing four games in a row last year, and that’s a credit to our players and our coaches that we stuck together and gave ourselves a chance. So we’re really looking forward to 2020.”
The Bears defense regressed last season, but it was still a top-five unit. Considering there were significant injuries to key defensive stars in defensive tackle Akiem Hicks and linebackers Danny Trevathan and Roquan Smith, this defense should be much better in 2020 if health is on their side.
Chicago’s offense is a different story. While there were injuries to their top-three tight ends that resulted in Trey Burton, Adam Shaheen and Ben Braunecker all winding up on injured reserve, the Bears offense was among the worst in the league for several other reasons. Inconsistent quarterback play, ineffective run game and questionable play calling all played a role in the offense’s decline.
The Bears have made several moves this offseason to improve the offense, including trading for quarterback Nick Foles, adding tight ends Jimmy Graham and second-round pick Cole Kmet and bringing in four new offensive coaches in offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, offensive line coach Juan Castillo and tight ends coach Clancy Barone.
Whether all of that equates to a rebound in 2020 remains to be seen. But the pressure and urgency to win is certainly there.
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