A turnaround, a promising future and an NFC North crown were brought about with the 2018 Chicago Bears season and along with that haul came Matt Nagy being recognized as AP Coach of the Year.
Things change quickly in the NFL and on Sunday, following a lopsided 41-25 loss to the archrival Green Bay Packers that was the Bears' fifth defeat in a row, Nagy was fielding questions about his job security and stated he isn't concerned.
"No, I'm not," he said via the Chicago Sun-Times' Jason Lieser.
Chicago (5-6) began its season at 5-1, but many doubted the validity of its record as the offense struggled despite victories, which all came by single-score margins with four against teams currently under .500.
Nagy made the switch from former first-rounder Mitchell Trubisky during an eventual win to the Falcons, a comeback effort spurred by Nick Foles. Foles' best showing was the relief appearance though and the offense sputtered about with Nagy eventually ceding offensive play-calling duties to Bill Lazor. After two games with Lazor calling plays, nothing has changed. There's been shuffling, but the results have remained the same.
With a bye week squeezed in between, the Bears lost to the Vikings in Week 10 and didn't have an offensive touchdown and fell to the Packers on Sunday night in a game that was essentially decided by halftime as the Packers raced out to a 27-3 lead. An offensive coach emanating from the Andy Reid coaching tree, Nagy has done little to quell the Bears' offensive ills as they entered Sunday ranked 31st in total offense. Following a 25-point effort with 351 total yards, maybe that ranking will improve a bit, but the vast majority of the Bears' offensive numbers came after the game was out of hand.
"We understand where we're at, and when you have games like this, you've gotta soul search," Nagy said. "You've gotta be able to stop the bleeding. There's a couple directions you can go.
"But my job as a leader is to make sure that they understand that. Obviously the last five weeks have been extremely difficult. It's not fun. We all want to win. But the one reason why I'm here is to fight and to lead, and that's what I think is most important during these times. When you go through these times, how do you respond? I think that's the test of true character."
Unfortunately for Nagy, how much time he has remaining to lead the Bears has come into question and the results are doing him no favors.
