CHICAGO (670 The Score) -- The silence surrounding these Bears is becoming deafening.
Fifteen minutes after the Bears were embarrassed by the Saints in a 36-25 loss at Soldier Field on Sunday, players were already dressed and filing out. The doors remained closed only for a short time and with no apparent rah-rah speech. They had little to say.
There were no immediate solutions offered by coach Matt Nagy, whose honeymoon period is now over in his second season.
How will the Bears (3-3) save a season that's already spiraling away? Nobody seems to have an answer.
"Something's got to change," Nagy said. "And I'll say this, something will change. I don't know what it is.
"But something will change. Because it's not good enough right now."
The final score and statistics didn't reflect what the 58,277 fans in attendance at Soldier Field witnessed Sunday. The Bears and the Saints each entered this season as defending division champions and as teams with Super Bowl aspirations. It was clear only the visitors from New Orleans stand as a legitimate championship contender.
It proved to be a revealing day for the Bears. They faced a Saints team without future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees and star running back Alvin Kamara and were thoroughly embarrassed. A Chicago defense that looked to be the league's best a month ago allowed 424 yards of offense and failed to force a turnover.
"They just came and punched us in the mouth and just kept going and going and going," cornerback Prince Amukamara said.
"We all got to look ourselves in the mirror. I feel like we're losing our identity."
It was even worse for the Bears offense, which managed only 85 yards of offense and 2.4 yards per play through three quarters before padding its stats in garbage time in the fourth quarter and finishing with 252 yards and 4.0 yards per play.
On a day that fans were given Walter Payton bobbleheads, Chicago rushed seven times for 17 yards. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky produced another uneven performance, finishing the afternoon 34-of-54 for 251 yards and two touchdowns -- both coming in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach. He averaged 4.6 yards per pass attempt.
If the defense lost its identity, what can the offense say?
"Right now, we have no identity," Trubisky said. "We're just searching."
The Bears appear to be a team closer to unraveling than rallying. That culture Nagy established in 2018 will be tested the rest of this season. He referenced the team's leadership, but it wasn't clear after this loss who those players are. Instead of picking each other up, they walked out of the locker room hanging heads and silent.
What will Nagy tell his team?
"I talk about horse blinders and earmuffs," Nagy said. "Don't listen to anything outside, because right now it's not going to be good. So, what happens is people from outside try to pull you down, and the last thing that anybody is going to do, whether it's (the media) or anybody else outside, you're not pulling us down."
Though the Bears sit with the same 3-3 record that they had through six games before finishing 12-4 last season, this feels vastly different. Trubisky and the offense have significantly regressed. The once-vaunted defense is being gashed. The eternal optimist Nagy is frustrated.
The Bears are a broken team blocking out the noise. All they are hearing is silence.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago's sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.
