The Bears lost in ugly fashion last night, scoring only 10 point against the Rams. Making matters worse was that the offense scored only three of those points.
“[W]e’ve got to get stuff figured out,” Bears coach Matt Nagy told reporters after the game regarding the offense. “It’s not good enough and to be outscored by your defense obviously is unacceptable, too. So, that part’s frustrating. . . . I don’t ever remember having our own defense score more than our offense. That’s hard to do. So, that part I don’t like, and that bothers me.”
Nagy clearly is perturbed by the failure of the offense to make things happen.
“I’ve never really, I’ve never been a part of this before, so it’s a situation where it’s for all of us, very frustrating trying to figure out answers,” Nagy said. “The hard part is, is when you care so much and you’re trying so hard to figure out that identity and where we’re at and the ‘Why?’ part. That’s the part that stings. It’s just trying to get that thing right and it hasn’t happened, so we have to look at, across the board, we have to look at everything. We’ve been doing that and you get out here. We’ve got to start fast. When you come out and all of a sudden you get a penalty, it just kills the drive and penalties hurt. You cannot have penalties early on in the game. Then, when you have situational football, you can’t have penalties in fourth-and-one to get a first down and move the sticks. As hard as we’re making it on ourselves right now, you can’t have penalties. That’s the part there that for all of us to figure out, ‘Okay, when is this going to stop?’”
It’s a little amazing to hear a coach of a 5-2 team talk this way, but that’s what happens when a team wins ugly with an offense that has a hard time kicking it into gear. On Monday night, Nagy thought they wouldn’t be blown out.
“I thought our guys had great energy,” Nagy said. “It’s 10-3 at halftime, not scoring many points, they’re not scoring many points. You come out and all of the sudden you get the ball in the one yard line to start the third quarter. It’s run to get some breathing room. It’s another run to get breathing room and then all of the sudden you have them beat on a double move and we just don’t get it. That’s no criticism to any player, Nick [Foles] had a guy coming off to his left free and you saw it was close, but it wasn’t close. And so that was just kind of one of those nights where it just wasn’t our night. So we’ve got to figure out how each and every one of us are going to step our game up to be better.”
If that double move had hit, the game could have been very different. As Nagy said, however, that play was proof that it wasn’t their night.
It also wasn’t their night, and it hasn’t been their season, running the ball.
“It’s not where I want to be, you know?” Nagy said of the running game. “I mean you got to run the ball in this league and you got to be able to run the ball. We’re trying to figure out ways to do it and right now we got to be better there, and it starts with me.”
It also wasn’t their night, and it hasn’t been their season, blocking the Rams.
“It’s hard when you’re in this scenario right now,” Nagy said. “What happens is, just like you said, you start thinking, is it this guy? Is it that guy? The only choice we have right now probably, and I know this for sure, would be that we have to pull together as best as we can and fight through this adversity, as hard as it is. The word frustration is easily exaggerated in these times, and it should be. So, having that happen, we have to understand, what are we doing that’s not working and let’s not do that. What are we doing that is working? And let’s get back to more of that. I wish I had a better answer for you, but again, I’m not going to criticize or challenge any of our guys’ effort, but something is obviously off. So, we have to figure out what that is, because until we start running the ball, you can’t be one dimensional.”
So the running game isn’t getting it done, the line isn’t getting it done, and as a result the passing game can’t get it done and, putting it all together, the offense can’t get it done.
It gets no easier for the Bears, 5-2 notwithstanding. They host the Saints on Sunday before traveling to Tennessee the following week.