Kreutz, Brown go scorched earth on Matt Nagy originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
You can probably count on one hand the number of positive offensive plays that the Bears made in their 26-6 loss to the Browns in Week 3. They had one passing yard. One. They surrendered nine sacks. They averaged 1.1 yards per play, the second-worst mark in the NFL this century, per CBS Sports.
“You almost can’t even make it up, it’s that bad,” Matt Nagy said after the game.
“I obviously as a head coach did not do a good enough job of getting this offense ready to go, to be able to play and win a football game. So, it starts with me, ends with me and it’s as simple as that.”
Beyond that however, Nagy did not have many answers for the Bears’ historic struggles on offense.
“He keeps talking about the ‘why’s,’ ‘we’ve got to find the why’s,’” said Olin Kreutz on NBC Sports Chicago’s “Football Aftershow.” “Put a big mirror in your office, put ‘why’ over it, stand in front of the mirror. You found it, ok?”
Chicago Bears
Before too long, Kreutz said that message will wear out inside Halas Hall. He contends that players can only hear about fixing things for so long before they tune it out.
For Alex Brown, the problem is that Nagy keeps saying, week after week, that the Bears need to go back to the tape to assess what’s going wrong.
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“This is the damn problem right here, because there’s no adjustment during the game,” Brown said. “I need you to adjust during the game. You can’t wait until Wednesday or wait until Thursday… that’s too late.”
One of the most glaring gameplan omissions noticed by fans and pundits alike was the lack of bootlegs and rollouts for Justin Fields, to help him get out of the pocket to evade the Browns' pass rush.
“We know what we wanted to do and what we were gonna try to do, they did too,” Nagy said in regards to the lack of rollouts. “They know as well. And so there’s some parts that you gotta be able to adjust if they’re gonna try to take something away that they think he does well, and you gotta be able to adjust, too… There were things that they were gonna not allow him to do.”
Like Nagy said, the Bears needed to be able to adjust to the defensive gameplan the Browns had in place. Problem is, they simply weren’t able to do it.
“You’re supposed to be the offensive guru,” Brown said. “Since you’ve been here it’s been pathetic.”
In the end, show host David Kaplan said he’s seen enough.
“Coach, you’re a really nice man,” Kaplan said. “I hear you’re a really nice person to work for. You have worn out your welcome in Chicago. It’s time for you to get a cardboard box, the checks you’re owed, and leave.”
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