Cleveland, OH- It was an afternoon that included missed opportunities, blown-up plays, and questionable playcalls for the Chicago Bears. Much of the Bears’ struggles on offense were apparent on Sunday afternoon but the past repeated itself. The same issues that Chicago struggled with on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns were the same ones the Bears struggled with throughout 2019 and 2020.
The Bears need some sort of change. That much is apparent. The change fans want is the firing of head coach Matt Nagy, which isn’t realistic, given ownership’s track record includes waiting to fire coaching staffs until the end of the season. The change that can be made includes Nagy relinquishing playcalling duties to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, something the franchise experimented with at one point during the 2020 season that led to some success for the Bears.
“I obviously as a head coach did not do a good enough job of getting this offense ready to go, to be able to play and win a football game,” said Nagy after the game. “It starts with me, it ends with me and it’s as simple as that.”
For Nagy to say that everything starts and ends with him is generic. In the NFL, everything for a team on Sunday starts and ends with the head coach. But for the Bears and Nagy, circumstances are different. The defense has continued to carry the team over the last four seasons. The offense has yet to come up with a decent showing, leading to questions about Nagy’s ability to playcall but also lead an NFL franchise.
“This is not how we wanted it to go,” Nagy said. “You almost can’t even make it up, it’s that bad. But we got to get to the film and we got to make sure we’re hard on ourselves and we understand the whys and really, just go from there.”
Every NFL team moves forward at some point after a loss but for the Bears, questions now linger. Rookie quarterback Justin Fields’ debut was also on Sunday afternoon and part of the Bears evaluation process will include figuring out where Fields excelled and where the 11th overall pick struggled. The Bears know that in order to put Fields in a position to succeed, change needs to happen for both the present and future of the franchise.