Matt Nagy is trying to emphasize the positive. Perhaps he’s watching the wrong team.
After the Bears coach watched his own team limp for a fourth straight loss, he was trying to put a happy face on the people around him to keep the slide from becoming worse.
“That’s a big part of it,” Nagy said, via Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune. “We stay positive and we fight through it. It’s going to come, it’s just a matter of when. And I know it’s hard for everybody. It’s hard for us and it’s hard for everybody out there. But I’m all about positivity, and that’s the way we attack it.”
Nagy’s work as a therapist is getting tougher and tougher, as the Bears are closer to the top of the draft order standings than the ones for playoff seedings
Specifically, he has to work with the Bears’ defense, which is forced to bear a larger burden because of the struggles of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and the entire offensive operation.
“I have all the belief in those guys and how they’re going to handle themselves,” Nagy said. “Even after a four-game losing streak. What happens is you see their character jump up even more and you realize that they lead themselves defensively. Just all in all, the whole unit, they feed off that. So I have confidence they won’t get burned out.”
Still, he knows the pressure, admitting: “the physical side of it is you’ve got to go out and get points on the board. That’ll help them with the burnout factor.”
The fact that the Bears are talking about counseling and burnout at the midway point of the season is as reliable an indicator of the way things are going as any statistical measure.