Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy and his assistant coaches spoke with the media Monday after the 33-22 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Here are three things we heard from the group at Halas Hall as the Bears turn their focus to Sunday night’s road game against the Green Bay Packers.
1. Justin Fields’ availability for Sunday’s game will be ‘an ongoing discussion for us all week long,’ Nagy said.
Fields wasn’t medically cleared to return from broken ribs for the Week 13 game against the Cardinals, so the rookie quarterback first has to clear that bar before he even can be considered to play against the Packers. After that, Nagy said the decision will be based on how Fields is dealing with pain.
For now, the Bears will prepare for both Fields and Andy Dalton to start and alter their plan as they monitor Fields this week, starting with their first full practice Wednesday. Fields was limited in practice all last week before Dalton made his second straight start. The veteran threw four interceptions in the loss.
If Fields can’t make the injury worse by playing, there’s an obvious benefit for the Bears to get him back on the field to continue his development, which Nagy thought was accelerating before the rookie was injured against the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 21.
“Going back to the San Fran game, I really felt like the game was slowing down to him,” Nagy said. “Now as he gets back out there, to be able to help get to different spots within the offense — if we have a check at the line, if we have some growth where he can get to something within the play — seeing him kind of grow in that aspect (would be good). I really felt like his confidence was starting to get good out there. At practice. On the field. In himself.”
When Fields does return, the Bears want him to continue to learn how to minimize awkward hits that could cause more injuries.
“There are times he’s trying to make a move and he realizes he can’t get away with it against a faster player that he’s probably been playing against,” quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo said. “No offense to the Big Ten, great conference obviously, but it’s just the reality of the beast. I think he’s really learning what you can get away with and what you can’t. I do think when you have a player that’s that athletic, I do think there is a little bit of a learning curve in that for sure.”
2. Nagy plans to find out more about the headset issues that plagued the Bears.
Nagy spoke of the issues Sunday night after the game and specified Monday that they began at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Bears started a drive at their 2-yard line. Dalton began motioning to his ears that he couldn’t hear offensive coordinator Bill Lazor calling the plays in the coaches’ box, which led to Nagy instead relaying play calls from the sideline.
After finding out Dalton’s spare helmet didn’t work either, according to DeFilippo, the Bears eventually got a walkie-talkie to Nagy later in the drive, allowing him to relay the calls from Lazor to Dalton.
Nagy said he didn’t think the Bears defense had the same trouble. He asked on the sideline if the Cardinals were having trouble but didn’t get an answer. He said he would try to get answers about whether the Bears or the NFL are responsible for solving the issue.
“I just haven’t gotten to that point today,” Nagy said.
Nagy isn’t the first coach to raise concerns about malfunctioning headsets this season. After the New York Giants’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 1, Giants coach Joe Judge said they had been having headset trouble all season and had to burn two timeouts because of the issues.
The NFL issued a statement to the New York Daily News about the Giants at the time that said, “We are looking into the matter with all involved parties; however, we are confident that nothing is attributable to the Bose headset.”
3. Tight ends coach Clancy Barone said it was important for Cole Kmet to not let a drop affect the rest of his game.
Kmet took full responsibility for his dropped catch Sunday that Cardinals safety Budda Baker grabbed for an interception and returned 77 yards. Kmet said weather was a factor as he rolled backward and the ball flew out of his hands, but noted he needed to focus on finishing the catch.
Barone said he and veteran tight end Jimmy Graham both had conversations with Kmet about not letting the cloud of the drop hang over him.
“Those are going to happen,” Barone said. “Probably the only guy that’s never happened to is the guy that’s never had a ball thrown to him. The big thing is looking to see, ‘Can he fight his way through that?’ And he did. He came back in the latter part of the game and had two pretty tough catches where he had a guy on the defense hanging all over him, and he had to make two pretty good catches there toward the end of the game to help us try to come down and score again. So that was a plus in watching his maturation. It’s one thing to have something bad happen, but then how do you handle that? And Cole handled that like a pro.”
Kmet had three catches on seven targets for 41 yards, but also let Cardinals outside linebacker Chandler Jones get by him to tip a Dalton pass that led to the QB’s third interception.