Chicago Bears
After a season as continuous as you will ever see – the Bears went 5-1 to start the season, then lost six in a row and then won three in a row – a wild card wave means the franchise explosion that seemed inevitable when the Bears were completing the collapse of six games a month ago, that is out of the question. Getting out of that pirouette and putting the Bears back in the playoff almost certainly saved Matt Nagy’s work, as NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported on Sunday that Nagy should return next season.
The Bears, the NFC’s seventh seed, play against Saints on the Super Wild Card Weekend (4:40 pm ET on Sunday) and they will need a lot more than 16 points to be competitive in that game. If the attack can be explosive against good defenses – the Saints had their third general defense coming in week 17 – that’s why the Bears have a big decision to make about Trubisky next year. The Bears have refused Trubisky’s fifth year option, so he will be a free agent in March. Just a few weeks ago, it was a foregone conclusion that he was gone. But the past few weeks should make the Bears finally rethink the idea, especially if a market does not develop for Trubisky and he can return with a reasonable short-term contract.
When Nagy discussed in early December the decision to put Trubisky on the bench in favor of Nick Foles in the first month of the season, he made it clear that it wasn’t just because of a bad game earlier in the season; it was the body of work over the years that left it aside.
Trubisky and the attack have definitely been improved since he resumed his starting role in week 12, and that’s a big part of why Chicago will play next weekend. Bears, with Nagy supposedly more involved in play-calling, scored at least 30 points in each of the four games leading up to the end of the season, although those games were against the last players in the NFL defenses. Still, Trubisky had 6-3 as a starter this season. And he was exactly what the Bears wanted him to be on Sunday: he got the ball out quickly, launched short, safe passes, hit the first sneak descent and uncorked a big pass that stressed the Packers defense – a 53-yard pass Darnell Mooney. For most of the game, he kept the Bears up against Rodgers, the likely MVP. But he also had the only brutal interception at the end of the fourth period that ended all hopes of a return, and the Bears were 1 in 5 in the red zone. Remove the 53 yard finish and Trubisky completed 32 passes for 199 yards, an average of 6 yards per finish.
It will be a fascinating off-season for the Bears. But this wildcard appearance was so unexpected just a month ago that it deserves to be celebrated first.
“Sorry, I’m not just balloons now,” said Nagy of returning to the postseason after Sunday’s defeat. That summed up the season.