It is the middle ground between greatness and failure, between competence and complacency, and it lies between the pit of Bears fans’ fears and the summit of sustained football prowess. Welcome to the Football Purgatory Zone. A dimension of rebuilding, occasional peaks and valleys (but mostly plateaus), firings and hirings, and sudden if not unforeseen realizations of mediocrity. 

Alas, Bears fans...friends...we’ve been here many times before. Fear not. We know the terrain. Never give up but 5-2 feels more like 9-7. Next year might be 10-6 but this Coaching staff and G.M. feel more like 8-8. And the ownership feels kinda 6-10. 

It’s football deja vu all over again. We’re back in the days where the Bears Defense outscores the Bears Offense, where head coaches look like they’ve outlived their utility, and doubt surrounds the G.M.’s drafting and scouting ability. 

Hell, we also have quarterback controversy drama brought further afield by the knowledge that we likely have 2 backup quarterbacks and haven’t really ever found that elusive franchise quarterback. Again. 

And that is again where the Bears and Bears fans found themselves in Week 7 of a promising 2020 season: Monday night on the road in Los Angeles, unable to muster points against a Rams team that found little trouble from a Bears Defense that had been the main reason for the Bears’ 5-1 record coming into the game. Down 3 touchdowns in the 3rd Quarter, the only Bears’ scoring came on a lone Cairo Santos field goal. 

It almost looked like a 4th quarter rally was again in store when Robert Quinn stripped Jared Goff of the football and Eddie Jackson returned the fumble for a touchdown to bring the score to 24-10. Instead it was one of those self-reflection, look-in-the-mirror losses. 

The Bears are definitely not 5-2 because of Matt Nagy’s coaching and play calling. The defense has been great for the most part. But in today’s high-scoring NFL, you have to put up points. A great defense is no longer going to win it alone. And the coach that Ryan Pace brought here to score points, simply hasn’t scored points very often. For all we know, Ryan Pace’s final decision on whether or not to hire Matt Nagy may have come down to the fact that their wives got along really well.

Bears fans of course are ahead of the curve on this one because we’ve been here before. Bears Twitter was awash with calls for Matt Nagy to give up play calling and focus on head coaching. A good head coach recognizes that he’s now a head coach and not a play caller first/head coach second. A head coach unburdened of play calling duties might find more time for game and clock management. With his nose stuck in his giant play sheet, Matt Nagy often forgets he has a game to manage. 

The sudden realization is that Matt Nagy might not be that great of a head coach or a play caller. He seems more like a guy who loves coming in on game days and calling plays in much the same way as NFL fans love playing Madden on their game consoles. The addiction may be too hard to quit. Kinda like Nagy’s refusal to give up on that toss sweep play to Cordarelle Patterson on 4th and 1. Coach, that play is your lowest success rate play. Just FYI. 

As well, last night’s game refueled the quarterback controversy as Nick Foles struggled to connect with his receivers. But really, behind the Bears’ Achilles heel offensive line, would Mitch Trubisky really have done much better? Sadly, years of neglecting the offensive line in the draft and poor scouting have again come round to bite the proverbial football butt. 

Even more controversy ensued as after the game it was revealed that QB Nick Foles felt the play calls were coming in too late for him to make adjustments and *gasp!* that he knew a lot of plays wouldn’t work after they were called. At least Bears fans have seen the quarterback and coach feud before. We had Jay Cutler for 8 seasons. 

So, Bears fans, here we are again, stuck on repeat, hoping to avoid football purgatory and waiting for Bears management to catch up to us. Seems like old times again, doesn’t it? It’s going to be a long season if the Bears don’t tackle the tough decisions and reverse the trend towards mediocrity and disappointment.