Chicago Bears: The real reason they lost to the Packers in Week 17

The Chicago Bears embarrassed themselves against the Green Bay Packers once again.

The Chicago Bears kept it somewhat close on Sunday afternoon. In fact, if you weren’t totally clued in on the game against the Green Bay Packers, you would have tuned in midway through the fourth quarter and think, “Hey, they have a shot. The Bears must be playing them tough.”

But in the end, Chicago lost by a score of 35-16 in a game that was never really all that close. Chicago shot themselves in the foot all afternoon, even dropping three easy interceptions. Never mind the fact that they somehow made the postseason. They lost this game, and there’s about as crystal clear of a reason as it gets.

So, why did they lose? Two words: Matt Nagy.

At one point, the Bears led the league in penalty yards. All year long, we’ve seen poor tackling out of the defense. Multiple times, we’ve seen receivers almost catch the football, only to give it up mid-air for what turn out to be interceptions.

Then, when the Bears finally get on some kind of roll offensively, Nagy decides to take back some of the play-calling duties.

Yes, for those who are just now following along, Nagy reportedly took on more in terms of play-calling against Green Bay after giving it up to Bill Lazor a few weeks ago.

Why?

For no other reason other than arrogance, Nagy decided to take matters back into his own hands. He decided he knew best and that in a big game, with playoff implications to end the regular season, it should be his job once more to influence play-calling.

So, what did we see out of the offense with Nagy back in that chair?

It was constant 2-yard out routes accompanied with almost zero downfield chances and a pace of play that was much slower than it had been in recent weeks. Sure, that first drive of the game was fun. The Bears scored a touchdown. But, it was a 14-play drive that went 60 yards after the little blip on the opening kickoff.

After that drive, the Packers adjusted to what the Bears were doing offensively. Nagy kept doing the same thing. Green Bay knew they could expect everything to be underneath and below the 10-yard mark — and they were right.

They could continue to play the bend-don’t-break defense and get away with it, because Chicago had to continue settling for field goals.

With Lazor running the show in previous weeks, the Bears hurried to the line with a bit more “oomf” and were able to get into a rhythm. Running the ball gave them an opportunity for play action, which led to a few more open targets further down field for Trubisky.

That didn’t happen on Sunday. Nagy dialed it back once again, putting the cuffs on his quarterback and calling about as vanilla, predictable and boring an offense as you could possibly call.

For that, Green Bay just had to sit back and get comfortable in what they were doing defensively. They didn’t have to change much, because the Bears weren’t adapting — a real shocker, right? Nagy has failed to adapt since getting to Chicago. He’s always the smartest man in the room, and just when you think he’s finally been able to humble himself, he takes back his crown.

Nagy should have let Lazor continue doing what he was doing, because the Bears’ offense was scoring 30-plus points regularly; in four-straight, actually. Instead, he put his hands back where they clearly didn’t belong — and the Bears lost.

If they are to have any real chance against the Saints in their Wildcard matchup, Nagy has to look at the film and realize he messed up. This should be Lazor’s show going forward, or the Bears will get all-out embarrassed by New Orleans.