One of the biggest games of Matt Nagy’s career might take place without himPatrick Finleyon October 29, 2021 at 10:35 pm

Matt Nagy coaches the Bears against the Raiders. | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Getty Images

Nagy has run team meetings on Zoom this week and watched practice film, but has been forced to quarantine until he can test negative for the coronavirus on consecutive days.

In the days after he tested positive for the coronavirus Monday, Matt Nagy began preparing acting head coach Chris Tabor for the possibility he’d be in charge Sunday at Soldier Field. They ran through different hypothetical situations, from how to deal with assistant coaches and players to how to navigate moments and mindsets during the 49ers game.

“Just different scenarios and different things, so I can help him out as much as possible,” Nagy said Friday. “Some things he might not think of on game day.”

Nagy also began preparing himself for one peculiar scenario: that one of the most important games of his Bears career might take place with him nowhere near Soldier Field.

The difference between a Bears win and a loss Sunday is the chasm between a .500 record and a three-game losing streak; between the Bears being part of the playoff conversation during the Week 10 bye or, if they also lose against the Steelers in prime time next week, being stuck in yet another months-long freefall.

The Bears have yet to lose to a team in which they were favored. If that changes Sunday, it could affect the tenor of the season — and Nagy’s job security by the end of it.

Nagy has run team meetings on Zoom this week and watched practice film, but has been forced to quarantine until he can test negative for the coronavirus on consecutive days.

That’s enough to sour Nagy’s sunny-side-up disposition.

“I don’t think frustration’s a good word,” Nagy said. “I think you’re eager and you want to be able to be there with your guys. And that’s probably the biggest challenge as you go through this, is, just making sure that everybody is doing everything as best as they can. And that’s where just talking through things, it’s easy to [use] technology now to do that …

“But there’s just — you don’t have that feel, right? Because you’re not there.”

Tabor, the special teams coordinator, said he’s ready to lead the team Sunday, if needed.

“You’ve always been preparing yourself your whole life to do that,” said Tabor, who last served as a head coach in 2001, when he ran NAIA Culver-Stockton for one year. “I’ve watched a lot of football games and have thought about those types of things. So if it ever did come up, put yourself in a good position to help the team.”

The irony is that, after Nagy delegated play-calling to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor following the Week 3 blowout loss to the Browns, he learned hard into a personality-driven coaching style. In the dreary days after the loss, Nagy gathered his offensive players and actually asked them for advice on how to retool the playbook.

The night before the Buccaneers game, Nagy held an emotional team meeting in which, according to running back Khalil Herbert, he showed “how much he cares and what he means to this team and how he wants to bring us together.”

The Bears then lost 38-3.

Nagy has said all month that not calling plays allows him to be more connected — to everyone from quarterback to his defense — on game day. Rather than bringing the team together this week, though, Nagy is apart from it.

Nagy is left in a lose-lose situation. If the Bears win Sunday without him, fans pushing for Nagy’s ouster will claim he’s unnecessary. If they lose, the same people will paint the Bears as a sinking ship without a leader.

At various points this week, Nagy described the possibility of his absence Sunday as “strange,” “unique” and “weird.” And then he admitted he didn’t know what it would feel like to be the first Bears head coach to miss a game since Mike Ditka had a mild heart attack in 1988.

“I wish I could tell you,” he said, “but I have no idea what it will be like.”

Sunday, he might just find out.

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