CHICAGO (670 The Score) -- In the final minutes of a cold, dreary day, there were no collective chants from Bears fans to fire coach Matt Nagy or a chorus of boos to echo along the lakefront.
That was because most of the fans had already left Soldier Field. Only a fraction of the crowd in the stadium’s 61,500-person seating bowl remained at the end of the Bears’ 33-22 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, the team’s sixth loss in seven games. Chicago is 4-8 and wondering what will come after the five remaining games.
Just more than a week after Nagy temporarily saved his job with a much-needed win, the Bears were struck by reality again. Their downward spiral continued.
“It’s OK to be upset,” Nagy said. “It’s OK to be frustrated after a game. There are a lot of emotions. We all want to play better and coach better.
“The only thing that we can do is keep fighting and sticking together.”
Even the best effort from these Bears isn’t enough anymore. This is a team decimated by injuries on both sides of the football with a lack of depth at key positions that's also being exposed.
It sure seems like Nagy’s fate is sealed and that he's in his final games as Bears coach. But what occurred Sunday – like so many times before against true Super Bowl contenders – was general manager Ryan Pace's negligence being revealed. His belief that the Bears were a playoff-caliber team was foolish and misguided. The NFL's best teams have proved that.
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When the Bears were at full health during parts of this season, they still weren’t good enough to beat teams like the Packers and Buccaneers. Pace and the team’s board of directors felt confident there could be earnest improvement in 2021 after a pair of 8-8 regular seasons, but that's not going to happen barring the unexpected. It would take an unlikely five-game winning streak to close the new 17-game regular season for the Bears to get to 9-8.
Pace’s most egregious mistakes were failing to address clear voids on the offensive line, at wide receiver and at cornerback. But Sunday, his belief in veteran quarterback Andy Dalton as a starter came back to light. Dalton threw four interceptions, giving the Cardinals (10-2) every opportunity to cruise to the win.
Before the Bears turned to rookie quarterback Justin Fields as their permanent starter in early October, Pace thought Dalton could lead them to the playoffs.
“I had two tackles today, unfortunately,” Dalton said in summarizing his turnover-filled performance.
Next up for the Bears are the rival Packers (9-3) next Sunday night at Lambeau Field. It’s unclear whether the job status of Nagy and Pace are tied to each other in the mind of Bears chairman George McCaskey. Though Pace (46-64 in his tenure with the Bears) hired Nagy in 2018, he has established a close connection with McCaskey and the board of directors. That has created speculation that Pace could somehow stay employed by the Bears for an eighth year.
Nagy (32-30) often seems resigned to his fate as this empty season moves toward its conclusion. He has failed to generate a top-tier NFL offense or foster a winning culture. He'll almost certainly be fired.
Nagy was forced to confront intense scrutiny about his job security recently after a report falsely stated he'd be fired following Chicago's game at Detroit on Nov. 25. Though Nagy denied the report, he was initially blindsided by it and went to McCaskey for clarity. Bears brass then failed to give him a vote of confidence, as they didn't speak publicly about the rumor. Nagy the highest-ranking team official to speak publicly on the matter in a press conference setting.
The Bears gave Nagy a reprieve from the hot seat by winning against the then-winless Lions. But on Sunday, he and the Bears couldn't avoid their reality, and the empty seats at Soldier Field speak loudly to the McCaskeys.
At the least, Nagy didn’t have to hear loud cheers calling for his firing.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.