Bear Necessities: The Morning After...the Bears' Week 3 loss vs. Browns

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Alyssa Barbieri, Brendan Sugrue and Ryan Fedrau

September 27, 2021 6:00 am CT

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The Chicago Bears offense had an embarrassing outing in a 26-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns, which left many fans fed up with Matt Nagy’s play calling as Chicago fell to 1-2.

Despite giving up 26 points to the Browns, the Bears defense was solid, particularly getting after quarterback Baker Mayfield. Outside linebackers Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn combined for 3.5 sacks on the afternoon. But the story was Chicago’s putrid offense.

There was plenty to digest from Sunday’s game. Our Bears Wire staff is sharing their immediate reactions to Chicago’s loss against Cleveland.

Alyssa Barbieri

Through three weeks, there have been a couple of brutal losses that have been frustrating beyond belief. While Chicago’s Week 1 loss to the Rams was embarrassing due to the defense’s performance, the Bears’ Week 3 loss to the Browns was much worse. Mostly because, aside from the secondary, that Week 1 outing seemed like an outlier. And yesterday’s loss to the Browns highlighted Matt Nagy’s putrid offense that has gotten worse with each passing year.

The Justin Fields era was supposed to be the beginning of a new chapter where the Bears offense turned the page. Unfortunately, Nagy remains the offensive play caller, and Fields’ debut was marred by poor offensive line play, holding onto the ball too long at times and Nagy’s horrendous play calling that did little to help him out.

While this game wasn’t going to define Fields’ career, good or bad, it was a reminder that Nagy remains the biggest detriment on offense and in regards to Fields’ development. The Bears have never fired a coach mid-season, but if this keeps us, that might — and frankly should — change.

Perhaps the only encouraging thing to come out of this loss was the performance of outside linebackers Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn, who finally look like the duo we envisioned dominating offensive lines last season. Mack and Quinn combined for 3.5 sacks against the Browns and they both have at least 3.0 sacks through three games.

Brendan Sugrue

Another game, another deflating loss that leaves you questioning your fanhood to this football team. Was Sunday’s loss against the Browns because the coaching staff failed to properly put a gameplan together to counteract an elite defense? Or was it on the offensive players for not executing their assignments and getting bullied all over the field? The answer is yes.

Matt Nagy once again failed to inspire any confidence whatsoever that he can be the man to develop this offense and rookie quarterback Justin Fields. His offense simply does not work and has not worked for quite some time. As for Fields, he admittedly didn’t pass the eye test in his debut, but it’s hard to do that when he’s running for his life on every play and his receivers aren’t getting separation in their routes. He deserves some blame, but it’s a small percentage compared to Nagy and the rest of the offense.

I give a lot of credit to the defense for hanging in as long as they did. The fact it was a one-score game at halftime was nothing short of a miracle and the front seven should be applauded for their efforts. Taking down Baker Mayfield five times was impressive and it’s understandable seeing them break after keeping the game close for so long.

In short, I don’t have any more hope when it comes to Nagy. If you can’t figure things out with your fourth starting quarterback, maybe you’re the problem. Perhaps handing off playcalling duties will stop the bleeding but it won’t matter in the end. Nagy will always live by his “be you” mantra and never change. When even Mike Martz can adjust his gameplan after seeing his quarterback go down repeatedly and you can’t, you know there’s a major problem.

Ryan Fedrau

The best way to summarize this game on offense was Matt Nagy calling plays in the most Nagy way possible. He continued his trend of calling plays as if he has no confidence in his quarterbacks. If he has no confidence in Justin Fields, why not start Nick Foles? Fields is the player Nagy drafted, no excuses for not knowing how to play-call for him.

The defense played well for the first three quarters, before giving up 13 points in the fourth quarter. There’s no blame on them, that comes from short offensive drives with no points from the Bears.

Chicago was on defense for 39 minutes, 34 seconds on Sunday. That is too long. If that continues throughout the season, this defense won’t be as dominant and the Bears won’t win many, if any, more games this season.