Chicago Bears: Win over Texans should change nothing

The Chicago Bears’ win over the Houston Texans should not change the team’s long-term plan.

The Chicago Bears snapped their six-game losing streak, handily defeating the depleted Houston Texans 36-7. The win came as a giant relief for the team, who certainly must have felt great to get back on the winning side of things. The win was also celebrated by many fans who were ecstatic to see their team put up more than 30-points, something which has been an infrequent occurrence over the last few years.

However, nothing about yesterday’s game should impact ownership’s plans for the future. In fact, if anything, yesterday’s performance should have only underscored the need to fire both Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy at the end of the year.

Let’s start with the obvious. The victory came at the expense of the Texans who are in shambles. They were without three of their top wide receivers and their starting running back. They fired their head coach and general manager mid-season and looked like a team that has packed it in.

From that standpoint, it’s hard to put too much stock in the result yesterday. However, beyond the result, Nagy’s performance and the result exposed the reasons he is on the hot seat in the first place.

On the Bears opening drive, David Montgomery took the first play 80 yards for a touchdown. He would run the ball only 10 more times the rest of the game — an inexplicable decision. It was inexplicable because the Bears’ offensive line was winning the line of scrimmage all day. In fact, the unit has looked much better since they benched Rashaad Coward and replaced Bobby Massie — moves it took Nagy far too long to make.

In addition, while Mitch Trubisky put up some nice numbers, it was mainly due to the fact that Nagy kept things simple for him. On throws beyond 10 yards, Mitch was only 2/6. However, he was outstanding on the shorter throws.

While he has significant limitations and will never likely be an above-average starter in the league, it remains puzzling why Nagy hasn’t limited the gameplan until now.  While it is admirable for him to try to develop him into a quarterback who can read the whole field, the reality is he cannot — and so Nagy should have cut bait on that approach a long time ago.

At the end of the day, it may feel good to fans to be back on the winning side. However, if it ultimately leads to the McCaskey’s being bamboozled into thinking Nagy and Pace should return next season, then yesterday’s win, may do irreparable damage to this organization for the foreseeable future.

Celebrate the win but maintain a critical eye. If you do, you’ll see that nothing about this team changed — except the result — and that just isn’t sustainable.