Fangio is one of the most popular coaches with fans and the media. In fact, (in opening a can of worms) he may be the best coach on the staff. Like his boss, Fox, he gets a pass this season due to the injuries that his defense suffered. His unit was gutted by injuries and was not as effective as it could have been.
If you watched every game this season you would have seen that there were times that his defense did play well. If you look at the rankings from the 2016 season, it’s easy to see that the Bears were not a complete disaster on that side of the ball. Regarding the pass defense, that was ranked seventh in the NFL allowing 224.9 yards per game. That’s solid. For total yards, the team allowed an average of 346.8 which was good for 15th in the NFL.
Then there were two big places the Bears defense struggled. When it came to points allowed, the defense allowed 24.9 which was ranked a lowly 24th in the league. Finally, the rushing defense was one of the worst in the NFL allowing 121.9 yards on average. That put the Bears at 27th in the NFL.
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Anyone who watched the defense knows that while they did have a lot of injuries they did have some good depth. The main problem when those younger or second and third string players were starting was execution. The execution was poor many times and it cost the Bears wins. Chicago could have won a few more games had the defense not broken down at critical moments. The breakdowns appeared to increase as the season went on but that’s because the injuries skyrocketed.
Fangio will be retained barring anything unusual happening. With good health and additional talent, he could put together a strong defense that could help the Bears win games next season. He is the best they have and knows what to do and how to do it. He just needs the pieces to put together and execute his scheme.
On a side note, I have spoken to and read several messages from fans and a popular thought is that if Fox was to get let go, Fangio could be the next head coach. No matter what happened this season, if Fox would have been let go many people wanted Fangio to step in and take over. He is very popular with fans and the main reason for that is that he is has been proven to be a good coach. He has a lot of potential as a head coach.