More curious play-calling as Bears fall to Packers
Matt Nagy was conflicted.
Not confused, per se, but definitely conflicted.
On one hand, the coach was thrilled to learn that Arizona lost to the Rams on Sunday, punching the Bears' ticket to the postseason where they will face the 12-4 Saints in the wild-card round.
On the other, he was emotionally drained - and probably still a little ticked off - after watching his team drop its regular-season finale 35-16 to Green Bay at Soldier Field on Sunday.
It's a game the Bears could have won, if not for a few mistakes and a curious fourth-and-1 call that stalled a critical fourth-quarter drive.
"The message to our team was it's OK to feel like crap right now," Nagy said. "We put a lot of time and effort and energy into winning this football game, and it sucks when you lose. ...
"But no one's going to take away what these players did to work back these last three weeks, to put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs. And they did that."
They did, although that wouldn't be the case if the NFL didn't add a seventh playoff team just for this season. This 8-8 Bears team would be right where last year's team was: Making off-season plans.
Still, give the Bears credit for rebounding after a six-game losing streak to reach this point. Credit them, too, for hanging with the Packers - something that did not happen when the teams met in November.
Nagy and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor understood how important it was to keep Aaron Rodgers on the sideline.
And that's exactly what happened as the Bears put together five clock-chewing drives of 11 plays or more.
The fourth one came with the Bears trailing 21-16 and included a pair of fourth-down conversions. The drive ended, though, when Mitch Trubisky rolled out on fourth-and-1 from Green Bay's 25 and couldn't find anyone open.
"They had a better call on than we did and they executed better than we did," Trubisky said. "Credit goes to them. I think the only thing we could have done in that situation is maybe run something else against that look."
Indeed, it was a curious play call, one that Nagy didn't want to get into.
"Game-plan wise it was really going how you want it to go," Nagy said, referring to the 35½ minutes the Bears had the ball. "We've just to get that fourth-and-1 and that bothers me that we didn't. So we as coaches (will) do a better job there."
Green Bay then basically put the game away when Aaron Jones scored on a 4-yard run to make it 28-16 with 3:47 remaining.
The Packers (13-3) clinched the NFC's No. 1 seed and earned the conference's only bye. Rodgers, who completed his first 10 passes for 155 yards, threw for 4 touchdowns and set a franchise record with 48 on the season.
Trubisky was 33-for-42 for 252 yards, but 76 came on 2 completions, meaning the other 31 went for just 176 - a sickly 5.7 average.
David Montgomery ran 22 times for 69 yards to finish with 1,070 yards on the season.
Rookie WR Darnell Mooney caught 11 passes for 93 yards, but left with an injury after his last catch.
Trubisky finished 6-3 as a starter this season, throwing for 2,055 yards with 18 TDs and 8 INTs.
Although, like Nagy, he was upset about Sunday's loss, he's definitely excited to be in the playoffs for the second time and to face a Saints team that needed overtime to defeat the Bears in Week 8.
"This is what you work for," Trubisky said. "The season didn't go the way we envisioned it, but you have a new opportunity so really none of that matters. ...
"This has got to be our best week, it's got to be my best week. It's up to me to lead this team and make sure that everyone's bringing that attitude. ...
"We earned this and we've got to take advantage now. I'm looking forward to it."