(670 The Score) Now comes the hard part for the Bears — and that has nothing to do with stopping Drew Brees and the Saints offense.
That daunting challenge pales in comparison to interpreting a 35-16 loss to the Packers on Sunday that — coupled with the Rams beating the Cardinals — allowed the Bears to back into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed in the NFC at 8-8.
In two games against their biggest rival this season, the Bears were outscored 76-41 – a margin as embarrassing as it is alarming. Sure, the Bears were more competitive against the Packers the second time around, but seeing that as progress is like, well, getting overly excited over making the postseason with a .500 record. Amid all the giddy rhetoric, remember that the Bears only beat one team with a winning record -- the Buccaneers. They only snuck into the postseason Sunday because the NFL last April expanded a six-team field to seven in each conference to generate more excitement and revenue. Bears fans can thank NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as much as coach Matt Nagy or general manager Ryan Pace.
In short, the Bears made the playoffs without consistently looking like a playoff team against quality competition.
Let’s be honest about all this. As much as anything, backing into the postseason the way the Bears did merely put them in position to end the season with two straight double-digit losses to legitimate playoff teams and to realize how wide the gap is between the NFL haves and have-nots. The Saints are every bit as capable of hanging 35 on the Bears as the Packers.
Allow the Bears to celebrate qualifying for the playoffs as long as the decision-makers at Halas Hall remain sober in their judgment on the 2020 season as a whole. How the McCaskeys react to being the beneficiaries of the NFL’s legislated parity depends on what the Bears want to be as an organization and how long they want to wait for another Super Bowl season.
They must ask themselves questions that become more glaring by paying attention to the videotape more than the playoff seedings. Is being a middle-of-the-pack NFL team good enough for a franchise that’s worth $3.45 billion despite not having won a playoff game in a decade? Should Bears fans settle for being the seventh seed in a seven-team field knowing how far away they still are from resembling the top-seeded Packers? Should a 3-1 finish outweigh a six-game losing streak? What is the organizational appetite for change?
Everybody in Chicago has an opinion. Only George McCaskey’s matters. And now McCaskey has at least another week to consider how to address the future of the Bears, starting with what to do with Pace and Nagy. A pregame report by the NFL Network suggested Nagy will return for a fourth season and, in fairness, it would be understandable if the Bears retain a coach with two years remaining on his contract who never has had a losing regular season. The resilience the Bears demonstrated – only two other NFL teams have ever made the playoffs after suffering a six-game losing streak – speaks to the culture Nagy created.
Pace’s seat should feel hotter, and his future merits more uncertainty, barring some miraculous playoff run. Pace could need a Bears victory in New Orleans to save his job. This marks the second time the Bears have qualified for the postseason since Pace took over in 2015, but they've yet to win a playoff game on his watch. Drafting Mitchell Trubisky instead of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson in 2017 makes Pace’s tenure difficult to defend. So do the other quarterbacks whom Pace picked before and after Trubisky, from guaranteeing Mike Glennon $18 million to guessing wrong on Nick Foles. The once-elite defense Pace put together via the draft, free agency and trades has started to wither.
Conventional wisdom says NFL teams typically get rid of the coach with the GM, but it’s not hard to envision the Bears keeping Nagy and firing Pace — the one in charge of the roster. Besides the quarterback, the most impactful person in every NFL building is the individual who picks the players. It’s difficult to rationalize the Bears letting Pace pick the quarterback for the 2021 season, whether it’s Trubisky or somebody else.
Speaking of Trubisky, he improved his stature as a serviceable NFL starting quarterback with a late-season resurgence that continued against the Packers. Trubisky completed 33 of 42 passes for 252 yards with an interception for an 81.7 passer rating but rarely threatened the Packers downfield, with a pretty 53-yard completion to Darnell Mooney the notable exception. But like he has almost every game since regaining his starting job, Trubisky made one regrettable mistake that reminded everyone why he hit his ceiling with the Bears. This one came on an inaccurate floater in the fourth quarter that was intercepted by former Bears safety Adrian Amos with the score 28-16, killing any remaining hope of a Chicago comeback. You could almost hear the chorus all over town: same old Mitch.
What’s next for Trubisky will produce more conversation than clarity, but the Bears have the benefit of time — as well as at least one more game to factor into their evaluation. The Bears could justify offering Trubisky a modest, short-term contract more than applying the franchise tag that he isn’t worth. How the Bears approach the quarterback position in 2021 could reflect their overall ambition. If Pace loses his job, then the next general manager might have his own ideas. And who really knows if Trubisky would want to return to play for the team that benched him even if the Bears likely will represent his best chance to start next year. Regardless of how anybody evaluates the progress of Trubisky as a quarterback, he earned inestimable respect around the league for the professional way he handled his demotion — moxie on display again despite his postgame disappointment.
“It’s a weird feeling,” Trubisky said of making the playoffs after a loss. “We’ve got to put this one aside, look at it and learn from it.’’
It will hurt to watch.
Offensively, the Bears will regret going 1-for-5 in the red zone, settling for field goals instead of scoring touchdowns. The Bears controlled the ball for 35 minutes yet only had 16 points to show for it. Mooney caught 11 passes for 93 yards as the Bears oddly targeted No. 1 receiver Allen Robinson only five times. Tight end Cole Kmet’s fumble hurt. Nagy’s decision to kick a 20-yard field goal — while down 21-13 in the third quarter — instead of going for it on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line raised eyebrows enough to warrant a postgame question. Trubisky’s incompletion on fourth-and-1 from the Packers' 25 with 11:27 left in the game probably will give Nagy insomnia Sunday night. Why not just run the quarterback sneak, Coach?
“We’ve just got to get that fourth-and-1 … it bothers me that we didn’t,’’ Nagy said. “You can’t play Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers and kick field goals.’’
That was clear from the get-go, as every defensive mismatch seemingly set off an alarm inside Rodgers’ helmet.
On fourth-and-3 in the first quarter, Rodgers exploited fill-in nickelback Duke Shelley on All-Pro receiver Davante Adams, drawing a penalty that kept that drive alive. On a 72-yard touchdown pass to receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Rodgers quickly identified linebacker Danny Trevathan somehow isolated in man coverage as the result of a blitz. On a 13-yard scoring toss to tight end Dominique Dafney, Rodgers went back to the vacant middle of the field where linebacker Josh Woods — subbing for the injured Roquan Smith — looked lost.
There was a rumor floating around Chicago in the first half that Rodgers would throw an incompletion against the Bears defense but, after a nearly flawless 30 minutes of football, it was unconfirmed. Rodgers went 10-for-10 for 155 yards with a perfect 158.3 passer rating at the half. He finished 19-of-24 for 240 yards and a 147.9 passer rating – the fifth time in his Hall of Fame career that Rodgers’ rating has surpassed 140.
Whatever Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano tried, Rodgers made fail. When Fox analyst Daryl Johnston raised questions about the Bears’ blitz designs, you wondered if Pagano’s defense – not Nagy’s offense – was getting too cute.
Momentum shifted on the opening drive of the third quarter only when Valdes-Scantling dropped a sure touchdown pass after getting behind Shelley. Two plays later, the Packers punted for the first time all day. Instead of going ahead 28-13, the Packers gave the Bears the ball and, more importantly, hope. The gift of the drop was the equivalent of a turnover. The once-opportunistic Bears defense dropped three Rodgers passes themselves that would've produced real takeaways, courtesy of linebacker Barkevious Mingo, cornerback Kindle Vildor and snakebitten safety Eddie Jackson — who finished the regular season without an interception.
So many missed chances filled the Bears with regret even though Nagy urged his players to leave some room for relief too.
"The message to the team is this: It’s OK to feel like crap right now but, that said, feel it tonight, understand it,’’ Nagy said. “But no one’s gonna take away what these players did to put ourselves in position to make the playoffs.’’
Ordinarily, making the playoffs would make everything better.
But there has been nothing ordinary about this Bears season.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.