The last morsel of dignity available to the 2019 Bears is to escape with a winning record. They were aiming far higher when they began, but the modest success of finishing above .500 has looked increasingly attractive as they’ve staggered to the end.
For coach Matt Nagy, though, it wouldn’t change a thing. He’d obviously prefer that the Bears win their last two games — home against the Chiefs on Sunday and at the Vikings next weekend — but there’s no dressing up how badly this season has gone.
Even for Coach Brightside, a strong finish wouldn’t put a bow on the Bears’ failure. And it shouldn’t. Typically, there isn’t any meaningful difference between 7-9 teams and 9-7 teams.
‘‘There is no bow involved for me,” Nagy said. “[Going] 9-7 is a hell of a lot better than 7-9, but there is no bow at 9-7 for me. That’s not what I’m here for.”
Their chances of going 9-7, by the way, are slim. The Chiefs are six-point favorites and championship contenders. The Vikings will be favored at home next week unless their playoff seeding is cemented and they don’t need the game.
The Bears couldn’t imagine being in this position during a summer of Super Bowl talk and Nagy touting strides by Mitch Trubisky and the offense.
They veered off the road immediately.
The Packers flattened the hype in the season opener, and after the Bears squeaked by the Broncos, bullied the hapless Redskins and gutted out a home victory against the Vikings, they spiraled through a four-game losing streak that recalibrated expectations.
After getting shredded by the Saints at home, the idea of them accomplishing anything big this season was dead. And it got worse from there in a slipshod loss to the Chargers and a humiliation in Philadelphia.
Nagy has been as culpable as anyone in the organization and appears to recognize that.
‘‘I need to make sure that when this season is over, I go back and start with myself in how I can be better in a lot of different phases. And I’ll do that. I’ll be the hardest or biggest [critic] of myself.”
He’ll be looking for answers on the following, just for starters:
† Trubisky has not only failed to make the leap Nagy talked about before the season, he has regressed. His numbers are down across the board, he ranks 25th in passer rating at 84.2 and the Bears are eighth-worst in passing yardage.
† The ground game barely exists. Between offensive line trouble and Nagy’s play-calling, the Bears rank 29th in rushing yards per game and yards per carry. He only recently unshackled Trubisky, who had 80 total rushing yards through Week 13.
† The overall play-calling has never seemed right, and Nagy often has said he struggled to get into a rhythm. His plays seem overly complicated at times, and the Bears have hurt themselves with procedural penalties.
† The kicking game was off-kilter, too, between the hashmark snafu at the end of the Chargers game and the bypassing of reasonable field-goal tries with Eddy Pineiro.
Not everything has been Nagy’s fault. Trubisky is the one most responsible for his own development, the Bears opened with the same five starting offensive linemen they had last season and tight end Trey Burton’s absence appeared to be debilitating.
But Nagy, the 2018 Coach of the Year, is the one charged with fixing this mess.
“Any way I look at it, I’ll always go back to the fact that we didn’t make the playoffs and give ourselves a chance for a Super Bowl,” he said. “I’ll always be frustrated with that. I’m going to hold everyone accountable, including myself.”
That’s a smart place to start.
