Week 17 - Packers 35, Bears 16: The Return of Nagy Ball

    Admit it, when NFL network announced that Nagy was taking more of a hands-on role in the Bears offense, a shiver went down your spine. What kind of idiot would see an offense that leapt up in every single category the minute his hands were taken off the wheel and conclude "this is all good, but what it needs is more ME"?

This is somehow worse than the visor.

 

     And then, like a horror movie in slow motion, the monster started to rear its ugly head. Javon Wims getting meaningful snaps for some reason. Rashaad Coward being asked to do anything other than boost the confidence of pass rushers at practice. Saying goodbye to all the success off of play action passing and zone runs out of 12 personnel they've built on for the last several games to switch to 11-personnel, inside zone running, shotgun-heavy offense. Trubisky being asked to outperform Aaron fucking Rodgers with full-field reads out of shotgun.

   Yes, the Bears are in the playoffs for just the second time this decade. Still, watching Nagy force his square peg of an offense through an impossibly stupid ass hole of an offense while Rodgers had open throw after open throw all game makes this one hard to swallow.

The Good

 Money Mooney

 Way back in week 2, I wrote a statement that should've been used as exhibit A in a Legal Insanity trial when I said "he could be the best receiver the Bears have drafted in my lifetime". Instead, Mooney did me a personal favor and went on to have the best rookie season by any Bears receiver ever. He's refused to let the shit of Nagy Ball stick to him and done absolutely everything you could ask of him. He's just awesome, and a joy to watch. The fact that this is only the beginning for him is really special.

That Fucking bomb to Mooney

Seriously.

Fuck yeah

 

The Pass Protection

    Nagy's unfortunate inability to adapt to opposing defenses in under 2 years left the Bears offense to deal with all kinds of problems - edge rushers were selling out to maintain outside leverage to blow up all the bootlegs the Bears called, the Packers sat in cover-3 zone all game and the Bears had just about no adjustments to punish them for it - but the pass protection the past several games has been fantastic. This was a unit that started absolute last in the league, and then lost 3 starters, and the likes of Bars and Mustipher have been a huge part in turning this season around. Also, replacing Nagy's microphone with a Polly Pocket Talkie-Time. God why does Nagy bring this out of me.

    The pass rush was good, and has been good. That's awesome.

 

The Bad

Nagy

Your were the worst part of 2020.

Chuck Pagano

    Earlier this week, I started a thread to chronicle all of Aaron Rodgers' wide open throws, thinking it would take me a few minutes and contain maybe four throws. It took me three hours and included every single throw he was asked to make, all game. There were Packers receivers running wide open all over the Bears secondary, all game.

     

What even is this

Here's Rodgers, trying to politely as possible admit that he has no idea what the Bears defense were even doing for multiple plays. At one point, he tries not to laugh when explaining that the Bears lined up in coverage with linebacker Danny Trevathan against one of the fastest receivers in the game. Not, like, a disguised coverage. Just "hey, Aaron! We're out of real defenders so this is what we're left with, you're not gonna kick us while we're down, right?"

    He always does, Chuck. Always.

    The thing is, on paper, the gameplan almost made sense. You on paper have the best damn pass rush in the game. Khalil Mack is 1/3 Juggernaut and requires at least two lineman and the curse of an Egyptian tomb to keep him away. Robert Quinn has been a massive disappointment, but he was finally shaking off whatever was ailing him earlier in the season to return to form as a top-10 rusher too. Akiem Hicks is an honest-to-God literal Bear, except Bears are required to obey our earthly laws of physics, while Akiem looks like someone motion-captured a CGI hulk over an olympic wrestler on fast-forward.

   Then, you sent blitzes and stuck in cover-1 for most of the beginning of the game, reasoning that tight coverage underneath and a pass rush that was more a freight train made of human bodies would leave Rodgers unable to hold onto the ball for routes to develop and end up running for his sad, miserable, lonely life.

    The thing is, Chuck, it didn't work. It's true, you've had injuries, but it's week 17 - so has literally everyone else. You managed to turn Eddie Jackson and Kyle Fuller from ball-hawking threats to irrelevant complimentary pieces on a defense that's broken at its foundation. They're like the Titanic - a giant spectacle with so much money and pride poured into, nobody could believe they'd sink until the whole front deck starts doing the worm.

Trevathan: "Don't leave me, Roquan!"

    It's sinking, man. Honestly, it's sunk. Rodgers dropped damn near 50 on this vaunted defense with ease, then came back and ran up 35 more. This wasn't a game where you were forced to carry the offense - they punted once, and scored damn near every possession. 

    Low and behold, by the time you switched to a more traditional cover-3 style and disguised coverages while relying on the best pass rush in the league to do just that, it worked! Rodgers was getting pressured and started throwing should've-been picks. Now, is it your fault that your defenders have been dropping balls all season?

    Yes. You suck.

You'll be gone next season, so none of this matters other than to spit at you from your queue at the unemployment line, but still. You suck.

Mooney's Injury

    The dude has literally been the best receiver the Bears have ever drafted, dammit. He didn't deserve any of this. Hope you're alright, man. We need you, especially seeing as Robinson's star is starting to fade from "household name" to "he's probably the best receiver on the Bears".

The Run Game

    Let me just take back all that goodwill I built up for the O-line and crap all over it. The running game should've been better against the Packers. They were sitting in cover-3 all day, dedicating 3 of their defensive backs to deep coverage while having their edge rushers sit on outside leverage all day in favor of shooting down bootlegs. The run game was facing your standard 6 in the box all day, they should've been able to enforce their will on a DC stupid enough to underestimate this run game. David Montgomery runs like he's trying to turn opposing linebackers into human slushie using his own shoulders. The run game should not have resulted in "meh". God dammit.

Looking Ahead

    Look, did the Bears fall ass-backwards into the playoffs through no success of their own? Yes. Are the Saints going to bitch-slap them up and down the field with ease? Yes. Have I run out of optimism for a team that's helmed by a coach who's not only proven to be inept, but actively sabotages the parts that are working while somehow maintaining his job? Yes.

    Still, playoffs is playoffs, and this doesn't happen often. This season almost didn't happen, and the Bears have no reason to be where they are. We're playing with house money, let's get weird with it.

Bear Down.

-Patrick