LAKE FOREST (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Bears head coach Matt Nagy said “everybody” is down about the 10-3 loss to the Packers last night.
“You can’t have that,” said Nagy. “What just happened yesterday can’t happen.”
First impression
With no rhythm at all the offense succumbed to an avalanche of mental errors, missed assignments, inopportune penalties, and an improved Packers defense. “It wasn’t good enough. I told the players that. It starts with me. I need to be better and I will be better and I am going to demand that from myself, from our coaches, and from our players.
Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky completed 7-of-13 passes to Allen Robinson, but only 3-of-11 to the other 4 wide receivers who played in the game. Nagy called Robinson a “silver-lining” in the outcome playing with supreme confidence.
Reporters felt Trubisky looked as down as ever has in any of three seasons after that performance. “Yeah, he’ll be fine,” Nagy said. “It’s our job to make sure he stays up. We have to make sure that we understand it is week one. I’d rather he be down than be happy.”
Trubisky would like to take back his left corner end zone throw into double coverage to Robinson in the fourth quarter. “The nickel(defender) fell off late when he went to throw it…so he was trusting him one-on-one with (Adrian) Amos, but the nickel fell off late and it ended up like a double coverage forced throw.” Packers safety Adrian Amos intercepted the pass.
There was no commitment to the run against the Packers, who were winning the line of scrimmage battle all night, and Nagy knows the imbalanced run-pass ratio was detrimental. “We didn’t run the ball enough last night. We need as coaches to figure that out. For me I have never been a part of a game like that. It was a weird game...no rhythm…in any offense you got to be able to get that run game established so it opens up other things and we know we have to be better there.”
Rookie David Montgomery led the running backs with six carries, followed by five for Mike Davis. Tarik Cohen had one run nullified by a holding penalty and would have been a negative run anyway.
Cordarelle Patterson’s lone appearance in the backfield came on a third-and-one run up the middle, completely blown up by the Packers. Adrian Amos beat tight end Bradley Sowell to the inside and center James Daniels lost on a swim move by star nose tackle Kenny Clark.
“We could have had Walter Payton back there and he wasn’t getting anything. It wouldn’t have mattered.”
Third degree
When asked about the run blocking last night, Nagy said in general “our offensive line holds themselves to higher standards.” As for pass blocking, there was not a lot of green grass for Trubisky to work in the pocket last night.
Nagy is very excited about the defense under Chuck Pagano. “I love it. I absolutely love it. I think they showed last night how they’re going to do. They gave us a chance…as bad as we were on offense it was 7-to-3 with a chance to win at one point in the fourth quarter. “
Holding Aaron Rodgers to 10-points on 3.7-yards/play with 7 quarterback hits, 5 sacks, 9 tackles for loss, and 5 pass breakups is eye catching.
From a 30,000 foot view, Nagy is waving no surrender flags after a 7-point loss.
“You have to step back and understand that we were in a good position because of our defense last night," he said. "Now…fine tune and tweak, and get it right…don’t panic. You can’t panic. There’s too much season left and I refuse to do that.”
Next up: Vic Fangio’s Denver Broncos a week from Sunday at 3:25. Coaches have to figure out how to block star pass rusher Von Miller and the impressive young pass rusher Bradley Chubb.