Nagy pointed to the team across the field as the organization to follow. He draws attention to the discipline and execution of the Saints.
To reach the goal, the Bears will have to grapple with several questions about the 2020 season. Why was a 5-1 start followed by a six-game losing streak? Why was the defense left behind when the offense got steam? Why does the team finish 1-7 against playoffs and 3-8 to end the season?
“We clearly went through some growing pains during the six-game period, but we found out,” said Charles Leno Jr., tackle. the playoffs. Things just did not go our way. ‘
After the game, Leno took the trouble to tell every player in the locker room that he appreciated him. The seventh-year pack can take comfort in the fact that his unit has performed above expectations over the past six weeks of the season.
However, the offense only passed 140 yards against the Saints before a 99-yard touchdown in the final minutes when the game was out of reach.
“I think identity-wise as a transgression,” Nagy said, “you could see that we felt we were creating an identity. But how do we learn from that? Well, part of that is that in games like today, no no matter what your identity is, you should always be able to manage football. ‘
Nagy explained that the offense did not require a performance of 150 yards to run David Montgomery back every game. The running game still had to be better to put the Bears at a distance in more manageable situations.
Montgomery finished the day with 31 yards on 12 runs.
Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky completed 19 of 29 passes for 199 yards and one touchdown. While doubting his future in Chicago for much of the season, he said he would see himself returning to build on the progress of late in the year.
“We’ll see,” Trubisky said. “There are a lot of things that need to happen and a lot of decisions that need to be made, and it’s beyond my control, but I can see [me returning]. “
The coming days and weeks will be filled with the evaluation of the coaching staff, and Nagy admits that big decisions are on the way.
“I just told the guys in the locker room that to get better,” Nagy said, “and to be the team we need to be, that’s something we’ll be doing here in the off-season, is to make sure make that wherever there is a weakness, we make it a strength, and it’s going to take everyone. Today was not good enough. ‘
The Bears called defense also faces a crossroads. Since the dominant performance of 2018, the unit has relapsed into several areas. Despite the large investment in the pass and secondary, the Bears have a 16th place in pockets and a 25th place in forced turnover.
Seven players who started eight or more games in defense will be more than thirty years old by the start of next season, including defensive tackles Akiem Hicks and Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn.
Hicks rejected the idea that the defense missed their window to lead the Bears to the Super Bowl.
“Whatever you think,” says Hicks, “whatever you believe in and how you talk about yourself, it’s all true. I tend to talk positively to myself, and I tend to believe that there always is.” “Another opportunity is. Forcing myself into a positive state. I do not believe a window closes. I do not believe my opportunity is lost.”
Hicks said defense coordinator Chuck Pagano regularly tells players, “I’m not the man I want to be, but I’m better than the man I was today. Hicks took the saying to heart.
“When it comes to windows,” Hicks said, “and when it comes to opportunities for this game, I realize where I am in my ninth year, but I also believe I fought a lot. in my. I also believe there are better days to come. ‘