Job Security Questions Likely to Dog Bears Until Streak Ends
It's nearly December in the National Football League.
That means it's the time of year when coaches start fielding those awkward questions from media about their job future. The hot seat gets turned on, and coaches who seemed impervious can find their fates in question.
Bears coach Matt Nagy after Sunday's loss to Green Bay deflected one question about his job status, but on Monday provided a little more insight into his thinking on the topic.
"Yeah I mean what I would say to that is that's all a part of our business," Nagy said at his Monday morning press conference. "I mean when we sign up for this every one of us, not just head coaches but coordinators, position coaches, all of our families, we all sign up for that. So you know we, that comes along with where we're at.
"I can't worry about that right now, what I have to do is make sure that I do whatever we're not doing, we get it fixed and we get it right. What does it come down to common denominator-wise right? We want to make sure that we are winning football games, and so when you lose five in a row like this for us you know you've got to come up with different solutions, different answers and then you've got to have that pride."
The dreaded situation for all coaches in losing streaks is the rudderless ship. A team is considered dead in the water if the players quit on a coach, and in the second half the Bears defense seemed to have had enough against Green Bay.
However, the offense was still tryng and this wasn't the first time the defense looked like this.
Against the Los Angeles Rams it was similar. It was more a case of being totally deceived by the scheme and outplayed by both the Rams and Aaron Rodgers to the point where they had little left but some pride by the early third quarter.
Nagy said he does see players still caring, and not giving in after five straight losses. They shouldn't be giving in yet. They're still only a game back in a playoff chase.
Push them back any more and who knows what happens. Then perhaps the McCaskey family has to make a decision on whether to eat around $14-$15 million and fire Nagy and GM Ryan Pace.
It's a legitimate topic and question, particularly with the Bears facing the Lions this week after the Ford family dumped both GM Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia following two particularly disgusting losses.
For Pace, the difficult situation is coming if they were to lose to Houston and Deshaun Watson after he showed only minor interest in the former Clemson standout. And then there is the Jacksonville game and the embarrassing prospect of losing a game to Mike Glennon, the quarterback cast off when Pace and John Fox decided it was time to play Trubisky in 2017.
It would be difficult to imagine the McCaskeys firing Nagy and Pace in midseason. The Bears have never fired coaches this way. They've done it after the season.
So with five games remaining, everything seems to be on the table, as Nagy likes to say.
"I feel like that's why for me right now there's that pride that you have to have, and you know our guys, our guys do care," Nagy said. "I know that about our guys, I know they care. I felt that last night in our locker room, I felt it. But now it's about doing it and it's as simple as that."
After Sunday night's game, Nagy was more specific about what he's not seeing in terms of negative behavior among players.
"What's easy to do, the easy way, is to just start pointing fingers and just say it's not my fault," Nagy said.
He maintained the Bears haven't and won't do this, but they're still 5-6.
"And so, we're not going to point fingers, we're not going to blame," Nagy insisted. "We're going to line up and play the next game that they allow us to play and we freaking go, and we fight for each other.
"That's all we're going to do. We're not going to be negative. We're not going to be down. We understand. We're frustrated. We're pissed off. We're angry. Every feeling that you have, we have. But we got to fix it. And we got to do it on the football field."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
