(670 The Score) From now on, ignore what Matt Nagy says and focus on what his team does.
From this point forward, after the Bears enjoyed leaving Las Vegas triumphantly Sunday, evaluate their actions on game day instead of the words of a head coach who tends to talk too much during the week. Forget anything Nagy said before or after the surprising Bears improved to 3-2 on the season.
This was the only statement that mattered and the most impressive one yet this season: Bears 20, Raiders 9. Or should we use exclamation points?
This was the emphatic accent on the kind of football everyone in Chicago has been waiting to see, an ode to an aggressive defense, a rugged running game and reliable special teams. This was a strong and clear message about the way this Bears team can win with rookie quarterback Justin Fields, getting more by asking him to do less and letting his knack for making clutch plays surface naturally. This was the Bears finally embracing who they are, in Week 5, without apology or explanation.
This was the best response any NFL head coach could offer, a three-hour commercial for complementary football.
By the fourth quarter, many Bears fans in Allegiant Stadium might have been asking for forgiveness in the Sin City for what they said about Nagy during the first month of the season. Absolution comes much easier after victories, as does affection.
"When you love each other, you play hard for each other and we’ve been through some tough times," Nagy said.
Last week was particularly rough for the coach. Nagy invited the civic skepticism by unnecessarily injecting himself into the equation after the win against the Lions and by naming Fields the starter two days after declaring Andy Dalton would be No. 1 if healthy (and Dalton was). Hyphenated words like ego-driven and wishy-washy were used to best describe Nagy. Then, mid-week, something changed.
What or who caused Nagy’s football epiphany doesn’t matter. That it happened does.
The players whom Nagy asked for direction in play-calling recently during an unorthodox team meeting responded with authority against the Raiders. Injuries cost the Bears two of their best players, running back David Montgomery and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks, yet an undeniable effort offset those losses.
With their coach the subject of national ridicule and local scorn, the Bears played as if the criticism bugged them, motivated them. Whatever the case, dare I say that the Bears looked like a well-coached team – the better-coached team – against the Raiders, who were led by the Super Bowl-winning, $10-million-a-year-making Jon Gruden on the opposite sideline.
Nobody can say what prompted the obvious metamorphosis in Nagy or his players, but two ideas come to mind: 1) Nagy getting out of his own way by delegating play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor and 2) Nagy officially naming Fields the starter.
You could argue both evolved moves were related.
Fields offers possibility that veterans in the locker room understand and appreciate, and his effort against the Lions was enough to show many teammates he was ready for the full-time job. But the move that probably went further with players – and, let’s face it, everyone at Halas Hall – came when Nagy acquiesced publicly and privately and acknowledged Lazor’s expanded role in calling plays and forming game plans.
Maybe Nagy also realized that shelving his ego could extend his expiration date in Chicago. Harry Truman was right -- it really is amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit. The collaborative approach they like to brag about at 1920 Football Drive in Lake Forest now has worked for two straight victories. The Lazor focus was most obvious in the offensive emphasis with the Bears running the ball 37 times for 139 yards — compared to 21 pass attempts.
"Bill Lazor has done a phenomenal job being able to come in here and get the guys in a rhythm," Nagy graciously told reporters postgame.
And the Bears accomplished that rhythm shorthanded, playing without blocking tight ends Jesse James and J.P. Holtz and losing right offensive tackle Germain Ifedi to injury during the game. The offensive line committed to running roughshod over the Raiders. On certain plays, the Bears employed seven offensive linemen. Jesper Horsted, the backup tight end’s backup, stepped up to catch Fields’ first career touchdown pass. But Lazor’s real impact came in balancing the load in a backfield deeper than many realized.
Damien Williams, who gained 64 yards on 16 carries, ran like a guy with something to prove, reminding everyone that he once cracked the 100-yard barrier in a Super Bowl victory. Khalil Herbert, who led the way with 75 yards on 18 carries, darted through holes with the determination that defines many sixth-round draft picks, all speed and power, gaining more confidence with every carry. How about the way Herbert carried 286-pound Raiders defensive tackle Darius Philon for several yards at the end of a fourth-quarter run? Williams’ four-yard touchdown run capped a 16-play, 86-yard drive that included the offensive line asserting itself enough to justify Lazor leaning heavily on the run.
All of which lightened the load on Fields, who displayed equal parts resourcefulness and resilience.
"That son of a buck is tough," Nagy said.
Fields endeared himself to teammates and every Grabowski watching by returning after taking a shot to the ribs and briefly leaving the game for the injury tent due to a leg injury. There will be more dramatic moments, surely, as Fields evolves into the Bears’ franchise quarterback, but replacing Dalton after the “Red Rifle” completed his only pass of the day demonstrated the rookie has as much grit as grace.
Nobody should overstate Fields’ numbers: 12-of-20 for 111 yards and a touchdown without an interception. But Fields protected the football unlike his last road start and, as far as big plays go, quality trumped quantity. The biggest one came on third-and-12 at the Bears' 27-yard line with 7:26 left in the game with Chicago clinging to a 14-9 lead. The way Nagy explained it postgame, Lazor called a play the Bears had planned earlier in the week to use in a clutch situation. This was it, and Darnell Mooney found an opening over the middle and Fields fit the ball into a tight window for a 13-yard gain. Six plays later, including a dart from Fields to Cole Kmet, Cairo Santos kicked his first of two field goals.
“We kind of had that bad boy sitting there waiting for that moment," Nagy said.
Fields might wake up sore, but he was feeling no pain recalling the post-victory Club Dub, Vegas-style.
“I’m dancing," Fields said. “Y’all might see a video."
His counterpart, Derek Carr, spent the entire game on his toes thanks to a persistent Bears pass rush. Carr was sacked three times and completed 22 of 35 for 206 yards – well below his standards.
Yet it didn’t start well for the Bears defense. On third-and-9, they gave one of the game’s most dangerous tight ends, Darren Waller, enough open space to set up a pop-up casino, and Carr found Waller for a 29-yard gain. Before the next snap, the defense followed up that blown coverage by calling timeout to regroup. A goal-line breakup by Roquan Smith and a holding call caused by Khalil Mack, surely a satisfying flag for the former Raider, helped the defense bend instead of break.
The Bears built off that momentum.
Smith and Mack conspired to stop the Raiders when they threatened on the following drive. On a rare keeper by the Raiders, Smith corralled Carr for no gain on third down. On fourth-and-1, Mack stuffed Josh Jacobs and the Bears took over at their own 27. Mack enjoyed some jawing with Carr after a sack at the end of the first half that was more than just two old buddies exchanging pleasantries. As the game grew older, the defense got better.
Two Raiders drops helped, but the pass rush harassed Carr enough that the veteran seldom appeared comfortable in the pocket. That knocked the Raiders offense out of sync, such as when Carr floated a pass intended for Zay Jones that Bears safety DeAndre Houston-Carson intercepted at the Bears’ 45 with 11:09 left in the third quarter. An accurate pass would've moved the chains, but the ball stayed in the air long enough for Houston-Carson, an underrated longtime member of the secondary, to cover enough ground to make the play.
The Raiders came into the game amid questions created by a Wall Street Journal report that alleged Gruden used a racial trope in an email 10 years ago that disparaged NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith. The email, sent to former Washington Football team president Bruce Allen, compelled Gruden to issue an apology and his current team to release a statement, making it fair to wonder what state of mind the Raiders would have by kickoff. A team that had scored just five total points in the first quarter of its first four games needed to start fast. It didn’t, managing a meager field goal and committing costly mental mistakes.
The questions about the Raiders’ focus persisted in the second half. A wide-open Bryan Edwards dropped a pass on the opening series of the third quarter that would've gained at least 60 yards. One series later, the usually reliable Waller let a pass go right through his dependable hands. A Raiders sideline report from CBS described a listless energy level.
Everybody can relate to a regrettable weekend in Las Vegas, but it’s different for Gruden and his team. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but the Raiders live there, and the Bears made them want to forget their experience off the Strip faster than a hungover salesman returning from a convention.
This was the kind of weekend the Bears want everyone to remember.
They made their own luck and created a ruckus, without saying a thing.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.