Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy Better Take the Packers Seriously
By Erik Lambert
The Chicago Bears hired Matt Nagy to make Mitch Trubisky a success and to win the Super Bowl. Let’s be real though. He’s basically another audition.
What does it mean by audition? He’s the latest in a long line of coaches with a simple goal: beat the Green Bay Packers. It may sound overly ridiculous but facts are facts. Rivalries aren’t governed by logic. They’re governed by emotion. It takes a little something out of Bears fans each year when they lose to the Packers, and the past decade has been especially awful for them. Nagy is the newest man brought in to hopefully change the fortunes.
The Packers are the measuring stick of any coach in Bears history and the first game can reveal so much about what’s to come. Most would think that whether the man win or loses it might project how he’ll be as a head coach. This is not necessarily true. The stats reveal something a little different, something that will speak directly to Nagy’s background as an offensive specialist.
Chicago Bears coaches must score 28 points in Packers debut to find glory
People always say it’s the quarterbacks over the years like Bart Starr, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers that are the sources of the Bears’ pain with Green Bay. Yes, they play big parts but the reality is a big reason they’ve struggled lay on offense. Scoring points wins in the NFL and the Bears don’t do enough of it against the Packers.
There was an interesting stat that popped up. Coaches who reach 28 points in their Packers debut go on to great careers.
- George Halas: Scored 20 points (6 championships)*
- Paddy Driscoll: Scored 37 points (1 championship appearance)
- Jim Dooley: Scored 13 points
- Abe Gibron: Scored 17 points
- Jack Pardee: Scored 27 points (1st playoff appearance in 14 years)
- Neill Armstrong: Scored 14 points
- Mike Ditka: Scored 28 points (1 championship)
- Dave Wannstedt: Scored 3 points
- Dick Jauron: Scored 14 points
- Lovie Smith: Scored 21 points (1 Super Bowl appearance)
- Marc Trestman: Scored 27 points
- John Fox: Scored 23 points
People will note the asterisk next to George Halas’ name. He only scored 20 points, so why is he in bold? This is about context. It must be remembered that Halas coached his first NFL game against the Packers in 1921. This was a completely different era of offensive football where it was all running the ball. The forward pass was still in its infancy. Teams just didn’t score much. In fact, that year the highest scoring team was Buffalo with 211 points in 12 games.
That averages out to 17.58 points per game. By contrast, the Los Angeles Rams scored 478 points in 16 games last year for an average of 29.87 per game. So the Bears scoring 20 points in that first game would be the equivalent of 30-35 today. Meanwhile, Driscoll and Ditka both met the requirement and reaped the rewards. Pardee, Smith, Trestman, and Fox all came close. Yet everybody knows the saying. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
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This is the challenge Nagy is up against. The last time the Bears scored 28 points against Green Bay was December 29th…..of 2013. It’s been eight-straight games since they’ve done it. They are 1-7 in those games. Ready for another? The Bears are 24-7 in their history against the Packers when they score 28 points or more in a game. They are 70-89-6 when they don’t.
Nagy is supposed to be the offensive guy. If he wants to prove he’s any different from the others, this is a high bar he has to clear.