The rise and fall of Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy

The Kicker Auditions

The Chicago Bears spent the 2019 offseason trying to find Parkey’s replacement. The Bears brought in what seemed like every possible free agent kicker available during minicamp.

They went into training camp with three kickers vying for the spot. What was weird about it was how Nagy handled the competition.

He kept asking the kickers in practice to attempt the same 43-yard field goal Parkey missed. It was like Nagy was emotionally wounded from the miss and was determined no kicker under his watch would miss a 43-yard field goal.

It also seemed he believed kicker was the team’s only problem.

100th Season Opener Against Green Bay

There were high hopes the Chicago Bears would win the Super Bowl in the NFL’s 100th season. Trubisky was supposed to take the next step towards becoming the franchise quarterback the Bears lacked since 1950.

The season opened at Soldier Field with the Packers in the building. All the excitement for the 2019 Super Bowl quickly faded after the Bears lost 10-3. The Bears’ offense looked awful and Trubisky looked worse. He struggled mightily with the zone defense the Packers ran. Trubisky’s footwork was bad and all his weaknesses were on display in front of a live, national TV audience.

The First Big Losing Streak

The Bears went to London to face the Oakland Raiders. Trubisky was out with an injury and the Raiders put Chicago in an early 17-0 hole. Chase Daniel rallied the Bears with 21 unanswered third-quarter points. It looked like the Chicago Bears would escape with a win but the defense gave up a late Raiders’ touchdown and went back to the States with a loss. They also exiled fan favorite and former All-Pro lineman Kyle Long from the team.

The next game the Saints blew the Bears’ doors off. This was not a Drew Brees-led New Orleans Saints. It was Teddy Bridgewater picking Chicago’s defense apart. Two late Bears’ touchdowns made the outcome a respectable 33-25 Saints’ win but make no mistake about it, New Orleans blew out the Bears. Oh, and Nagy abandoned the run game after seven attempts. He claims he was not an idiot for doing that.

The Chicago Bears struggled once again to score points against the LA Chargers. Trubisky led a last-minute drive to put the Bears in field-goal range. Instead of pushing for more yards, Nagy elects to have Trubisky take a knee and have Eddy Pineiro kick a potential game-winning, 41-yard field goal. Eddy goes on to miss the kick and Nagy give a bizarre reason for not running one more play for an easier field goal try.

"“I have zero thought of running the ball and taking the chance of fumbling the football. They know you’re running the football, so you lose 3, 4 yards, so that wasn’t even in our process as coaches to think about that. We were in field-goal range before the (11-yard Mitch Trubisky) scramble, and then we got the scramble, so that didn’t even cross my mind. Throw the football right then and there, what happens if you take a sack or there’s a fumble?”"

The Bears went to Philadelphia and lost the next week. Thankfully, the Lions were the next game, and the losing streak ends at four.

Patrick Mahomes Revenge

The Chiefs came to Soldier Field and wrecked the Bears 26-3. Patrick Mahomes throws for 251 yards and two touchdowns. He does a finger count up to 10 after one of the touchdown passes to mark how long he had to wait to get drafted. He completely outperformed Trubisky, the quarterback the Bears chose over Mahomes.

The loss ends any hope the Bears had of making the playoffs. Chicago finished the season 8-8.