Chicago Bears: No need to overreact to the Matt Nagy situation

Alright, before you all come at me with your pitchforks, let me preface this with the fact that I am not a Matt Nagy apologist. Furthermore, I am not standing up for Matt Nagy even with what comes next. What I am about to say will probably upset many Chicago Bears fans, but it has to be said. There are too many overreacting to how the Bears offense performed last Sunday while Matt Nagy was sidelined with COVID-19.

I find it funny how my wife and so many others tell me how pessimistic I am as a person. Maybe it has something to do with being a Chicago Bears fan. Years and years of unrealistic hope followed by what should be expected failure can do that to a person. The irony is, for some strange reason, I am always finding myself optimistic about this team — even if unwarranted.

As much as I enjoyed not seeing Matt Nagy on the sidelines, it had more to do with the fact that I was envisioning what the end of this season (yes, I am hopeful that the new rule might actually force the Bears to fire Nagy before the end of the year) will look like knowing that Matt Nagy is no longer involved in calling plays for Justin Fields and this offense.

Although we saw some differences take place in the offense last week, it was not enough to think that Matt Nagy’s playbook was not the driving force. What we saw was Justin Fields having another game under his belt while facing a 49ers defense that is not only average but was missing multiple key players.

Heading into Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers were 13th overall in Defensive DVOA. The defense had been better versus the run than the pass, but still solid nonetheless. When the Chicago Bears played them though, these players were all out due to various injuries.

• Azeez Al-Shaair (concussion)
• Dee Ford (concussion)
• Maurice Hurst (calf)
• Javon Kinlaw (knee)
• Jaquiski Tartt (knee)

Scoring 22 points against a middle-of-the-pack defense is not awful, but scoring only 22 points against a middle-of-the-pack defense without these key players is meh in my opinion. Everyone who is excited to see how the team performed last week and claiming it had to do with the fact Matt Nagy wasn’t around is overreacting to the situation.

The Bears struggled to score against the Rams, Bucs and Browns. All of these defenses are better than the 49ers. The team put up 20 points versus the Bengals (one by the defense) and 20 points versus the Raiders, again, defenses that have been better than the 49ers.

Are you picking up what I am pointing out yet? Matt Nagy not being on the sidelines last Sunday had very little to do with the offenses’ success. It’s possible that not having Nagy talking in Fields’ ear allowed him to feel free enough to run more, but I’m not confident that was the case either. Let’s just hope that whatever happens over the next few weeks, Matt Nagy is no longer on the sidelines in 2022.