I
wrote it at the half, but I thought the Bears did a good job of hiding Trubisky in the first and letting their run game grind out TOP and yards despite a <4 YPC.
Nagy and Lazor were in a catch-22 a bit thought by doing that, there is a mountain of evidence that says Mitch is a below average to bad (depending on what metrics you like to use) QB at the intermediate to deep passing game. So if you call more aggressive plays then, and Mitch fails like you expect him to, then you get blasted for bad playcalling/ not calling plays to your QBs strengths. Nagy and Lazor chose to go the opposite route, which was call mostly few receiver, short to intermediate routes, and hoped YAC, luck, and a strong D would get them enough offense to win the game. The problem with that is if one thing goes wrong early, you can't get out of a hole.
I thought the second half play calling was so-so, but mostly was a result of "you can't keep a 20 point per game pace when the other team has 21 points". There were definitely still a few "what were you thinking?@?!" moments.
I don't think Pagano has any idea how to call a defense against an elite QB. Some of his cute gimmicks like faking A-gap blitz with Trevathan just to have him drop into coverage while the NB blitzes might fool a new or a bad QB, but Rodgers burned him so bad on that kind of stuff that Pagano was getting mocked by the announcers. Not a good look when your DC calls are being openly mocked by the announcers. Anyone who has watched Chi Vs. GB in the last 5-10 years could have predicted that GBs game plan was going to be attack the weak nickel and dime DBs in coverage, try and isolate WR on ILB, and then attack on the ground when the the defense shifts to DB heavy personnel. GB basically has the same game plan as the first game and Pagano has no idea how to answer it, the team is still handing off coverage to no one, still lining up 8 yards off the ball in quick pass situations, and we're still getting ridiculous Trevathan on WR mismatches.
3 big issues with the Bears: the coaching, the O, and the D, thats it lmao. So many issues with a coach is forced to give up playcalling because of poor results, but once he's "out" cant help but inset himself back in after the OC finds some success.
I think Pagano was given a Maserati, beats up on the toyotas and hondas on the road, but loses to anything with a v8 even though his car should outclass them. I think on the macro-level, there is no longterm success to be had by lopsided team spending on Defense at the expense of offense - which is how the Bears are constructed. The random/luck nature of turnovers that is required for a dominant defense in todays NFL makes it too hard to sustain.
Bears need to move on from Mitch, Nagy, and Pace, but I think it will be difficult to find better replacements; and so all 3 have likely done enough to earn another year from the teams uninspiring ownership. Fixing these issues will be hard, really hard, so might as well do nothing and hope for the best is what I expect from Halas Hall.
