Rozner: Bears, fans seeing red after another crushing loss

The Bears were booed off the field Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field.

Not that it's news, in and of itself. Not this year. Not with the league figuring out Mitch Trubisky and Matt Nagy. And not with Bears fans figuring out they've been sold another franchise fantasy.

And we're not even talking about the comical end of the Bears' third straight defeat.

What was particularly troubling for the home team was being showered with anger as time ticked off the clock in the second quarter, and the ugly noise that ushered them into the locker room.

This occurred - wait for it - after they put points on the board and took a 9-7 lead in the football game.

That is where Bears fans are with their head coach and quarterback.

A fan base that will forgive almost anything the players do, allow any manner of awful play as long as there's some hope, booed the team off the field after a field goal that put them ahead.

That's how bad this is.

The last-place Bears (3-4) lost 17-16 to a Chargers club that came in 2-5, but the fans' disgust was apparent the entire day, never more so than at the end of the first half when the Bears were 0-for-4 in the red zone, including 19 plays from the 21 or better, 9 inside the 5-yard line and the requisite number of near-Trubisky interceptions.

Thus, the fan reaction to some brutal play.

It was especially troubling because Nagy started the game with a fullback in the lineup and David Montgomery in the I formation, which went for a gain of 10.

Nagy didn't use the formation again until the middle of the second quarter when again on first down it moved the chains with a run of 14 yards.

But with all those plays inside the 5-yard line, he went all Nagy on the offense, with lots of movement, exciting packages and innovation.

And only field goals to show for it, with Trubisky from inside the 10 going 2-for-7 throwing for 1 yard against the 28th-ranked red zone defense.

Proving he can learn a little bit, albeit taking sometimes weeks or months to figure it out, Nagy opened the second half with the fullback again plowing the way for Montgomery on the first 3 downs, gaining 8, 5 and 5.

And when the Bears were first-and-goal from the 4-yard line, Nagy resisted what you have to believe was his overwhelming urge to use a triple-reverse, throwback-to-the-tight-end, flip-to-the-QB miracle play, where he shows the NFL how creative he is and how brilliant his quarterback can be.

Instead, he used the fullback again, stood Montgomery deep and the handoff led to an easy touchdown run.

That gave the Bears a 16-7 lead and left Bears fans shaking their heads.

After Los Angeles kicked a field goal to close within 16-10 late in the third, Nagy went run, pass, pass, run and then Trubisky threw it deep down the sideline and was easily picked off.

The Bears' defense stood tall and forced a field-goal attempt, which the Chargers missed, and that temporarily bailed out the head coach and quarterback.

Nagy then went pass, run and pass before Trubisky dropped back and fumbled the football, giving the Chargers great field position again.

They scored 3 plays later to take the lead.

Setting aside the very strange decision to take a knee with 43 seconds left - and Nagy refusing to admit a lack of faith in the offense - before trying and missing a 41-yard field goal - which is hardly a chip shot - the Bears' play calls in the fourth quarter were bizarre at best.

Montgomery was averaging 5 yards a pop, so while the Bears ran more than they threw it Sunday, you don't get a pat on the back for trying when they could have run it even more and put the game away.

After the Bears took a 16-7 lead on Montgomery's run, you only saw that play behind the fullback one more time, with 5:22 left in the game, or 18 minutes after the last one.

That play was called back on a hold, so if you add them up, that play ran 6 times for 46 yards and a touchdown.

Granted, it's not very exciting. It doesn't create thrilling highlights. The league doesn't stop and marvel at the imagination.

But it works.

As for the genius in the red zone a year ago compared to now, Nagy said, "Yeah, there's no disconnect. They're similar plays. They're similar plays in certain ways, and there's some plays that are a little bit different based off some people that we have.

"But there's not a lot of change in some of the stuff. It's just you've got to pick the defenses. … The coordinators got to figure out when is he coming with this one or that one.

"Is it a run, is it a pass, what formation, personnel. There's not a lot of them in there that we haven't done before."

Not entirely sure what all that means but the end result was throwing it down there did not work.

If only there were another answer.