Bears Try to Avoid Panic in Order to Make a Stand
Bears coach Matt Nagy tried rallying the troops Monday, although after Sunday's lopsided 36-25 loss to New Orleans it sounded to media a bit like John Belushi talking about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor in "Animal House."
But media members can be his biggest critics, even if he regards them as friends.
To sound the battle cry, Nagy scoffed at the current 3-3 Bears dilemma and returned to those days of yore when he wore the red, white and yellow working for Andy Reid in Kansas City.
"Well the one time — and this is not 1-5, we're 3-3 — but in 2015 we were 1-5 and ended up winning 11 games in a row," Nagy said. "One and five, right? And I was mentored by one of the best coaches ever in this game. And I got to see how he handled it in the building. Forget all the other stuff. How did he handle it with the people in the building and the one thing is, you stay the course, you never panic. Because right now, everybody else wants to panic.
"That's now what we do. If you panic, you got no shot. That's when people start prying at you, they start pulling away, right. Because of who we are and the culture that we've built, this is where you'll see some teams, they'll separate and others don't. I've witnessed it, I've been on the side of 1-5 to basically winning 11 in a row including a playoff game. So we're 3-3, we gotta worry about the Chargers and my job the rest of this week is to make sure that the glass is (half) full."
It's true, the Chiefs did start 1-5, make the playoffs and win a playoff game before losing to New England, but it's also true Kansas City didn't experience the same trouble the Bears are having doing the most basic thing – running the football and now stopping the run.
If Nagy wanted to point to something closer to home, he could remind players they were 3-3 last year and ran off nine wins in 10 weeks. They're probably not naive enough to believe a team coming off rushing efforts of 42 and 17 yards, and with a worn out defense is going to slam on the brakes, do a spin and rejoin the race.
Following Sunday's game Nagy sensed trouble coming for the Bears from all sides and told them to put on earmuffs and blinders.
Already some players were on social media sparring with fans when it was probably the last thing Nagy wanted them to do.
"I'm unaware of the social media," Nagy said. "But I think all in all, the way I look at it is, I'm OK with frustration. I get frustrated. That's natural. This isn't where we want to be as an offense. So that's natural. I'm not against that.
"But what happens now is when we're in our building and we're together, they all understand that we all have to have accountability. They have to make plays but you can't start trying to take each other apart or any of that stuff. That's not what we're going to do."
Nagy said they try to bring in high-character players to avoid distractions.
It also helps to have leadership at a time like this in a season, but after Sunday's game many of the players on defense who are regarded as leaders didn't want to speak with media afterward.
Khalil Mack and Danny Trevathan were among those.
"I want it (leadership) to naturally happen," Nagy said. "I don't want to have to go talk to somebody and say, 'Hey, be a leader.' No. Just naturally let them lead.
"We're 3-3 right now and at that position in the season where we gotta start getting on a streak. Like last year: 3-3 and we won five in a row. Different feel this year, right? Completely understandable. But we did win five in a row. So I'm going to use that because it happened, it's real. So now what are those guys going to do, how are they going to lead, and what are they going to do about it, how're they going to handle it?"
It's the question they'll answer against the 2-5 Chargers on Sunday.
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
