The Bears’ problem isn’t the scourge of negativity; it’s the plague of a bad offense

You would have thought that Matt Nagy’s biggest concern after the Bears’ embarrassing performance Sunday was his offense’s ghastliness, with his defense’s surprising nosedive a distant second.

But, no. The coach was preoccupied at his postgame press conference with letting everyone know that his team was united, that there would be no civil war and that the media, a movable dark and stormy night, would not infiltrate Halas Hall with its negativity.

Like most coaches, Nagy views the specter of teammates pointing fingers at each other as just about the worst thing that can happen in life. He’s wrong. The worst thing that can happen is a team falling to pieces on the field, which is what happened against the Saints.

So I don’t care if the Bears’ defense is using lunch tables as barricades and firing rockets at ineffective quarterback Mitch Trubisky. If heavy verbal artillery is what it takes to inject some life into the offense, somebody supply linebacker Khalil Mack with military-grade insults.

It might just do some good if a Bears wide receiver publicly called out Nagy for abandoning the run game as if it were a contagious disease. The seven rushes the team had Sunday, the lowest in franchise history, were scandalous in a town known for its big shoulders.

If someone on the team were to point out the obvious, that Trubisky isn’t remotely in the neighborhood of what Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace say he is, the whole organization might take a nice cleansing breath and look at things with new eyes.

And if a Bears cornerback stated to reporters that the Bears might just be better off with Chase Daniel at quarterback, there is every chance the sky wouldn’t fall.

Coaches and front-office people are obsessed these days with the “culture’’ of a locker room. They want “high-character’’ guys who are “team-first’’ people. It’s why Nagy stood before a group of reporters and tried to send a message to his players about staying together. You get the distinct impression that some coaches would rather go 6-10 with a nurturing locker room than 10-6 with players one step away from killing each other.

Football as encounter group. We have reached rock bottom.

Bears Defensive Player: “I want you to know that I care about you.’’

Bears Offensive Player: “I’m not sure what protocol is here: to ask you to be my soul mate or to just know deep down that you are?’’

Pace sees it as a victory when problems stay in-house, when he has to talk with the media only twice a year and when his quarterback quotes from the latest leadership book he’s reading. You know what a victory is, Ryan? It’s when your team scores more points than the other team. That hasn’t happened for the Bears the last two games, which is why they find themselves 3-3.

Go ahead and circle the wagons. The Bears against the world. Tell yourselves that nobody believes in you the way you do. It’s the same message every high school coach has used since the beginning of time. And it’s not going to fix the Bears. The only thing that’s going to give players confidence is the sight of the offense advancing the ball down the field.

The defense should be mad at the pint-sized offense, but that doesn’t explain how it gave up 36 points to the Saints. You say that defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano’s group was worn down from being out on the field for so long? That would speak to a lack of resolve as much as it would fatigue.

Maybe the defense said all it wanted to say Sunday without saying a word. Maybe Nagy saw a defense that already had seceded from the union. Perhaps he was trying to head off a revolt with his comments after the game.

But he has a bigger problem on his hands than the possibility of a split team. He has an invisible running game, a quarterback who can’t quarterback and ineffective game plans that are of his own doing.

That might be too negative for Nagy. I might have to be shadowed inside Halas Hall, lest I interrupt the bubble bath of positivity that has led to the massive amount of success the Bears have had this season. But sometimes negativity is honesty’s first cousin.

The team collapsed against New Orleans after a bye week of alleged soul-searching and offensive tinkering. That’s the problem. The reaction to that collapse from players and reporters, no matter how ugly, isn’t.

Coaches fear losing their teams because they fear it will lead to the unemployment line.

This particular coach should worry about one thing: his offense.