Getty Head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears
It’s looking more and more like Matt Nagy’s future in Chicago will be secure — at least for another season. Per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, “Multiple people around NFL believe the Bears will retain Matt Nagy for 2021, as a win over Jacksonville would ensure three seasons of at least eight wins. Final two weeks must play out but Nagy’s team responded to midseason struggles and coach appears well-positioned.”
After Nagy and the Bears handled a very bad Jacksonville Jaguars team Sunday, they now need to either beat the Green Bay Packers next week, or they need the Arizona Cardinals to lose again in the season’s final game. In either scenario, Nagy and the Bears will have made the playoffs for two of the head coach’s three seasons.
As Fowler noted, Nagy’s future in Chicago is not yet certain — neither the team nor the coach have confirmed Fowler’s report. But after Chicago won its third straight game in response to a sloppy six-game skid earlier in the season, Nagy’s future in Chicago is looking more certain by the week.
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Bears, Matt Nagy’s Future Could Depend on Week 12 Game vs Packers
The Bears have been playing well on offense, but Mitch Trubisky and company have been doing it against bad defenses. Next week, they’ll play a Green Bay team that may or may not choose to rest its starters. If Trubisky and Chicago can continue their hot streak against the likes of Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay’s first string, they’ll earn both a playoff berth and a likely invitation back to the Windy City in 2021.
“With where we’re at right now as a team, it’s definitely different,” Nagy said after the Bears’ win over the Jaguars Sunday. “Green Bay is a hell of a football team and there’s a reason why they’re sitting right now as the No. 1 seed. For us, we’ve gotta worry about us. We’ve gotta understand what happened in that game. We’re guaranteed one more game, nothing else. If we do well in that one game, then we’ll have an opportunity for more. But we can’t worry about that. We just worry about us.”
Bears Offense is Scoring More Points Than Anytime in The Last Several Decades
The Bears have put up 30+ points exclusively on offense for four straight games. It’s the first time they’ve done that since 1965.
The Bears have scored 30 points in 4 straight games for the first time since 1965.
That was in Hall of Famer Gale Sayers’ rookie season.
It took turning play-calling duties over to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to make it happen, but Chicago’s offense is finally clicking. The Bears scored 21 points in the third quarter for the first time this season, finally putting together four complete quarters of football. Now, their longest rivals — and the NFC’s No. 1 seed — awaits.
“Our offense scoring points right now, putting up touchdowns,” Nagy said Sunday. “We even had a couple in the red zone where you look back and, ‘OK, man, we could’ve had even more.’ But, I thought for the most part, they did a good job of scoring touchdowns. So, you start winning, you get out of the losing streak that we had. We had a message the last three weeks about where we’re going and doing it together. And they’ve completely done it. This credit goes to all the players and the coaches. They’ve responded and they put us now in a situation where it could’ve went a lot different direction and it hasn’t. Now, we control things.”
After a topsy-turvy season in Chicago, one thing is clear: Much will be decided after Week 17 — potentially even Matt Nagy’s future.
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