Any reasonable
Bears’ fan had to be skeptical of the 3-0 start and were watching
this Sunday’s game just to see what the Bears really are. The answer,
a team that gotten some breaks and could easily be 0-4 instead of
3-1. Head coach Matt Nagy made the QB change and got the guy he
wanted, Nick Foles, but if you watched the game nothing changed. In
fact, the offense looked like it did last year.

The trade for
Foles will always deserve criticism because Jacksonville was not
going to keep Foles and Chicago traded a 4th round pick,
outbidding themselves. What would the Bears look like if they signed
Cam Newton for next to nothing? The reasoning for the trade was Foles
knows the offense and should be able to take the helm and be an
improvement. Don’t get me wrong, Foles is not an All-Pro but the
Colts game showed maybe it’s not just the guy under center that’s the
problem.

All reports
from former players and professionals are Matt Nagy is extremely
clever and the type of offensive coach that can elevate his team.
Where is it? Was it all just smoke and mirrors that first playoff
birth season? The offense looked exactly like it did last year
despite the QB change and was putrid at home in an ugly game.

The Bears were
3-0 against bad teams, combined 1-11 for the season, so the quality
of team on the other side was a big step up but Nagy helped the Indy
defense. In the first three games Chicago rushed 85 times for 414
yards, good for 4.87 yards per carry. The rushing attack was
averaging 138 yards per game but Nagy only called 16 rushes against
the Colts. The team only totaled 28 yards, an awful 1.8 yards per
carry, but Nagy has to be better.

Again, the
Colts defense is immensely better than any other team the Bears have
faced, and Tarik Cohen was lost for the season against Atlanta, but
if the coach is clever he ought to be able to figure something out.
Nagy’s comments painted a picture of being unhappy with how the
offense had to run to suit Trubisky but I’d take that over what I saw
against Indy. 13 carries for the backs versus 42 pass attempts for
Foles? The Bears offense isn’t good enough to operate that way.

Nagy ran the
pass happy offense last year to awful results and with ‘his guy’
apparently is going to pass, pass and pass some more. No running back
is going to get in the flow of the game with ten rushes and
apparently Nagy forgot David Montgomery was on the team, despite
averaging over 14 rushes and two catches a game coming in. Not far
off his average admittedly, but Nagy needs to realize what his team
needs to win and that’s not 40+ throws a game.

Can we be done
with the Cordarrelle Patterson running back experiment? He has 18
rushes for 62 yards on the season and is taking carries from better
players, namely Montgomery. Patterson isn’t a big play back and my
last memories of him will be getting stuffed on 4th down
as the coach has gotten too cute trying to outsmart everyone with
something that isn’t working. In a league where backs can be pulled
from anywhere and produce Chicago can’t find someone better than
Patterson as a change of pace?

The defense
gave up an opening drive TD but put together it’s first complete
game, holding Indianapolis to 19 points despite the offense regularly
putting them quickly back on the field. Nagy responded with only
three points until garbage time, that should never happen. Any
optimism we had as fans has found itself where it normally is for
Chicago, gone and making you question why you even believed things
would be different.

The running
game will apparently succeed in spite of its coach in Chicago, as
Nagy would rather approach 50 throws a game instead of 30 carries.
I’m not saying Montgomery is a stud, but he can produce when given
the chance. Instead Nagy put the ball in his journeyman QB and
watched balls repeatedly hit the turf. Great coaches adjust to their
players’ strengths but it seems Nagy will be damned if his system
doesn’t work, that’s what he’s going to run and Chicago will only
beat bad teams because of it.