Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy met with the media Monday at Halas Hall to recap his team’s 45-30 loss to the Green Bay Packers on “Sunday Night Football.”
Here are three things we heard from Nagy.
1. Rookie quarterback Justin Fields has a bruised left hand.
That’s good news for the Bears after Fields needed X-rays on his swollen non-throwing hand after the game. The Bears already were down one quarterback after backup Andy Dalton sat out Sunday’s game because of what NFL Network reported was a broken small bone on top of his left hand.
Nagy indicated Fields’ hand shouldn’t be a problem.
“I feel like he should be good there,” Nagy said.
However, the Bears will be down a key special teamer and defensive contributor after DeAndre Houston-Carson fractured his forearm and will need surgery.
In his sixth NFL season, Houston-Carson had an interception, four passes defended, a fumble return for a touchdown and 51 tackles. Along with playing 72% of special teams snaps this year, according to Pro Football Reference, he was playing more on defense than ever before in his career under new Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai. He logged 50% of Bears defensive snaps, including making three starts at safety when Tashaun Gipson and Eddie Jackson were injured.
The Bears will monitor inside linebacker Roquan Smith’s status after he aggravated a hamstring injury he suffered on Thanksgiving. Smith quickly worked his way back the next week against the Arizona Cardinals and started again Sunday.
The Bears placed defensive lineman Mario Edwards Jr. on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Offensive tackle Elijah Wilkinson is also still on the list.
2. The Bears must determine the best way to help Teven Jenkins if the rookie offensive tackle continues to start.
Nagy said Jason Peters will remain the starting left tackle if healthy, but the Bears are determining how long Peters’ ankle injury will keep him out.
In his second NFL game, Jenkins stepped in when Peters was hurt and struggled against the Packers, giving up a key strip-sack and getting called for two false starts and two holding penalties.
Nagy said the Bears will look at several options, including potentially moving rookie right tackle Larry Borom to the left side and moving Jenkins to right tackle, where he started the majority of his games at Oklahoma State.
The Bears, who don’t play next until Monday night, won’t open practices until Thursday.
“All of that is probably on the table,” Nagy said. “(I’ll) get with (offensive line coach Juan Castillo) and talk through it. … It is different going from one side to the other, and then for somebody who hasn’t played a whole lot as well, there are different scenarios that we’ll probably look into.”
Nagy acknowledged the coaches’ responsibility to help Jenkins within the offense, noting the Bears used chip blocks or slams on 50% of their dropbacks Sunday.
“You definitely want to help out as much as you can,” Nagy said. “And even with the sack-fumble, the strip-sack, there was a chip (from Jimmy Graham) on that play. … Now, when you do that, you eliminate receivers or tight ends because you’re saying, OK, we’re going to protect. We need to understand that. So there’s a little risk-reward when you do that. But you’ve got to be able to help out that way.”
3. With hindsight, Nagy wishes he had gone for it on fourth-and-1 Sunday.
Early in the fourth quarter and down 38-27, the Bears faced fourth-and-1 at their 36-yard line. Nagy opted to punt. While Packers returner Amari Rodgers muffed the punt and the Bears recovered it, Kindle Vildor was called for running out of bounds on his own. The penalty pushed the Bears back to fourth-and-5, and they punted again.
Aaron Rodgers then led the Packers on a 71-yard touchdown drive that ate up 8 minutes, 38 seconds and gave them a 45-27 lead.
“When you look back and you see what happens, when they go on that long drive and they take up the clock and score, you wish you would’ve went for it,” Nagy said. “That’s the part where you look back as a coach and you go, ‘Damn, that would’ve been a time to do that.’
“At the same point in time, we were just coming off a three-and-out. We stopped them three-and-out the previous possession. So I just thought in that scenario … but it obviously backfired.”