Remember when the biggest problem we had was the kicker? Ah yes, those were the days. My hope for this season was effectively ended after week 1 (changed my season prediction to 6-10) when I realized Mitch was never going to get "it" and that even Nagy in all his genius had no tricks left in his bag. The D played well for the first few games, but still struggled to finish, alarmingly. But the last 2 weeks have been Mel Tucker-esque. What the fuck happened? My theory: Nagy spent the whole offseason obsessing about Parkey's miss, to the point where he staged elaborate 43 yard FG tryouts with the whole team to witness during mini-camps and camp. The message being sent was clear: this team was fine, no improvements were needed save for the kicker. No reason to improve the D, they would play at the same level. Mitch was going to be fine, after all he had the big drive to set up the FG in the playoff game. Montgomery was going to come in and be the next Kamara cuz Howard didn't fit the scheme. And the whole team spent the offseason buying into this message and just expecting to be better because Parkey was gone. Last year everything outside of kicker was sunshine and roses and nobody thought it would be different this year. Yesterday showed this team quitting in a game for the first time in the Nagy era. It showed yet again an offense thoroughly unprepared for the season. It showed a defense that who expected to be good with a half-ass effort, then roll over and die after our offense kept putting them back on the field. No heart. No will. Poor awareness. The whole team top to bottom. And I feel like it's because they bought into this BS message from Nagy that everything would be perfect just because we have a guy who can hit a 43 yarder.
Blang i totally agree with your post but would add something else myself because there are other messages of Nagy's that they have bought into and its not turning out the way Nagy thought it would. For instance, that D quit in the 2nd half of that game, imo they straight up quit. Most likely it was cos they saw the Offense not doing dick drive after drive and they thought things like "you know what, fuck this". "We can't win with the Offense playing this way so fuck this". "Its always us having to carry them, fuck this". "Why should i have to be the one, fuck this". Thats my personal opinion. And to back it up, what is one of, if not THE, major mantras you hear from Nagy to his players....... "BE YOU". Be you. You do you. Its something that fits into a great many tropes of current day society, a highly individualised approach to conducting yourself. Don't think about others, think about yourself. It works great for your Insti page. But for a team sport where you account for a little over 2% of the total number of players, in a mega competitive league that we KNOW the only way you will ultimately succeed is by doing it together, this approach completely breaks down. No, not "BE YOU", you fucking quit merchant little babies, "BE A CHICAGO BEAR!!!"
Here's exactly where it went wrong.... George Halas got married and had kids. One of those kids was supposed to run this team but he died. So the oldest daughter took over and outside of one year a long time ago....it's mainly been a mess. I blame Virginia McCaskey for all the years of heartbreak and futility. I don't care how old she is....fuck that cunt.
I agree with this principle. But as an older "millennial" myself (just turned 35), I get why Nagy has this approach. You probably know this already by my generation was brainwashed from an early age by school and media to think that each of us was special and unique and could do anything we wanted better than anyone else, if we only wanted it enough. From what I hear, this message has got even more extreme for folks younger than myself, to the point where every child (and now adult) has been coddled so much so that they cannot tolerate negativity or realities that challenge this "me first, me special" understanding they have about life. Nagy is doing his best to connect with young men raised in this mindset. And I think it's fine, at least from a football (not life) perspective, because realistically it's the only way to connect with the players and get them to buy into anything your trying to sell them. This isn't the 80s, not a single NFL player active today could handle a coach like Ditka or Parcells. Belichick is an exception not the rule in 2019. The Nagy approach is what you're going to see going forward, like it or not.
We gave Mike Davis 2 years and 6 million dollars....he played zero snaps yesterday. We drafted David Montgomery 73rd overall after trading up.....he ran the ball twice yesterday and is averaging 11 carriers per game. Boggles the fucking mind.
Roquan is a different guy on the field right now. No idea what happened but he hasn't been the same player since before the Vikings game. Kyle Fuller was garbage yesterday. EJax is making zero impact....I think because he's covering for HHCD a lot. So many issues with this team. But....if we had a competent QB you would notice those issues a lot less. When your QB is a hot blazing dumpster fire....it amplifies all the other issues your team has.
Mack has also been a non-factor for the last 2 games. Maybe he's not healthy. Maybe he's just sucked. And when Mack does nothing, then Floyd ceases to exist altogether.
Teams are scheming to stop him. The Saints were passing from jumbo packages yesterday with two tight ends lined up on Mack's side to neutralize him. Floyd is seeing one on one almost all the time and isn't winning his battles at all.
The 7 runs the Bears attempted were the fewest in a game ever for this franchise. After a bye week....when the coach talked about fixing the run game a lot.
And this why I cannot put the majority of the blame for the offense on Nagy. You have a QB who can't read a defense, or step up in the pocket, or go through progression, or hit a WIDE OPEN WR! Granted more running plays should be called due to all of this, but fuck. It all goes back to Mitch.
I've seen a lot of good plays get called that end in a bad result because of the QB. Nagy has issues. With the run calls and a lot of other stuff. But there is a lot that's working but doesn't work because the man under center can't do the job.
Yep! I do, I also remember thinking how much better this offensive line would be with the addition of Harry Hiestand. How fucking flawed is my thinking still? Haven't I learned that lesson from the past? because I also remember from the past thinking Mike Tice would somehow turn around that offensive line, ...but nope! I know I had tempered my expectations coming into the year because my biggest worry has been realized, Mitch. Somehow I figured the law of averages would finally catch up with the Chicago Bears and that they could find an actual NFL caliber QB...but nope! I thought I purged this loyal blind faith from my system, but I haven't just yet. I still held out hope that in this game this team could stage an Arizona type comeback as witnessed before, ...but nope! I thought last season felt like 1984 and the Bears were on the verge of something but weren't quite there just yet, and this would be the year they would do some stomping, ...but nope! The only thing I'm sure of with this team is that every season they will at some point reach down my motherfucking throat and rip out my motherfucking heart without motherfucking fail. Yep! that was yesterday.
There are tons of factors here on top of what’s been pointed out. Nagy is stubborn. He knows how to say the right things, but he evidently doesn’t learn. Yesterday the bears ran the ball 7 total times. Seven. We’ve all said this is no way to win, especially with Blake Bortles under center. But it’s not the first time Nagy has frustratingly abandoned the run. He’s done this multiple times, including earlier this year. Is it time for Mark Helfrich to start calling plays? He ran the ball a lot at the University of Oregon with Lam Harry Heistand needs to get shitcanned. The Oline after a bye came out and gave us that performance? Second: luck. Schedule and injury. 2017 the bears went 5-11 and were in last place, leading to the easiest schedule in the NFC north in 2018 where they went 12-4. Now they have the hardest. Last year Mitch was out for a couple weeks and besides that, there were normal ups and downs but nothing truly crippling. This year? A bit different when your best down Dlineman is out. Third: Mitch. You guessed wrong, Pace. He doesn’t get it, can’t make the throws you’d expect someone taken #2 overall to, and He’s got 2 more years here after this one. This isn’t baseball where you can go to AAA or the minors to get the next man up. Mitch isn’t going anywhere in the meantime. The best option in free agency is the guy starting for Drew Brees yesterday. Time to ask if Bridgewater is worth in the 10-15 mil range per year, because Mitch is showing he isn’t a starter in this league. Or you need to draft one, but I imagine I’m not the only one hesitant about letting Pace pick one again.
Also we're living in a time when you pass to to set up the run, not the other way around. If our QB could start completing passes and getting first down with regularity, you'd see teams forced to focus on coverage more and not gearing up to stop the run knowing full well our QB won't do shit if his primary is doubled.
I would say it's been bad for a while we just didn't see it and or want to believe it. 1- Look back at the end of last year and the offense was in regression mode I guess we could call it , it got masked by the missed kick , they the regression is worse and looks like no end it site. 2- Just look at a few games last week ( Indy taking out KC ) they put the QB under center and ran the fn ball 40 plus times and really dominated that game ... Nagy refuses to run the QB under center and hand the fn ball off . Until that changes the run game will never , ever be successful with the existing personal . 3- Apparently without Hicks the D is nothing like it should be , zero pressure on Teddy ( less 1 sack I believe ) I haven't heard that excuse preached but it does come up and I have a hard time believing that Mack and company's results are strictly tied to Hicks being on the field ... if so we will be putting Mack on the chit list soon also. 4- For the love on god PLEASE RUN THE BALL ON 2ND AND 2 YOU IDIOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I see a club dud sitting after their next win I will quickly lose all respect .
This was my biggest problem yesterday. ANd why this offense is digustingly unwatchable. It wasn't just that there were guys open all over the place that Mitch "didn't see." What I watched was DB's looking at Mitch. If his head was to the left on the snap, they took the play off if they were covering a receiver on the right. When even the most basic of average fans knows Mitch is one-read QB, the league's DB's are feasting on it. DB's can actually "rest" half the time they're on the field just by spying the QB instead of playing the receiver.
I sure hope that Nagy doesn't trip over his own ego whenever it comes time to actually take ownership of the piss poor performance this team is giving out and of the QB he seduced into thinking he could actually cut it as the main QB.
Bingo. And you need to throw the ball DOWN THE FIELD to do this. Not behind the line of scrimmage, not parallel to the line of scrimmage, not a yard past it. All that does is bring more guys up, further compounding the problem. The more defenders up close, the harder it is to run the ball. And when they don’t have to worry about getting beat... well... the run game pretty much has NO chance.
As they always say you see everyone's true colors when it's not all going as expected . I have see reports he's crying about the media and their questions so we shall see how it all plays out .
