Is Chicago Bears Coach Marc Trestman on Borrowed Time?

By Casey Drottar @cdrottar19 on November 10, 2014

Earlier today, I stumbled across an interesting survey at the website for the Chicago Tribune. The poll, posted after last night’s embarrassing Chicago Bears performance against the Green Bay Packers, focused on coach Marc Trestman’s job status.

However, instead of asking whether or not Trestman should be fired, the question instead was “When should Marc Trestman be fired?” Even worse, the two answers with the most votes are “right now” and “30 minutes ago.” For those wondering, “Give him one more year” is currently in dead last.

Now, obviously people have a tendency to overreact after a loss. However, when you lose as badly as the Bears did yesterday, it’s going to get ugly.

Chicago likely spent most of the halftime break asking league executives if the mercy rule could be applied. At least, I would hope they were, since you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone on the planet who thought the Bears would overcome the 42-0 deficit hanging on them at the break.

The loss featured two of the most popular hits from Chicago this season: absolutely putrid defense and erratic play from quarterback Jay Cutler. When the night mercifully came to an end, the Packers prevailed 55-14, and the Bears became the second team in NFL history to give up 50+ points in back-to-back weeks.

The Bears have now lost three straight, fans are burning Cutler jerseys – only a couple more guaranteed years! – and pundits around the league are putting the head coach on the hot seat. Barring an impressive and likely impossible turnaround, there will definitely be jobs lost for the way this season turned out. That said, does Trestman, in the middle of his second year in Chicago, stand a chance to stick around? Or, are there just seven more weeks left in his tenure with the Bears?

Now, obviously not all of Chicago’s struggles can be pinned solely on Trestman. He can’t stop Cutler from throwing ill-advised picks, and he surely can’t cover Jordy Nelson or any of the other wideouts the Bears’ defense has been letting run wild all year. At the same time, the Bears, coming off a similarly unwatchable performance against the New England Patriots two weeks ago, had a bye week to shake off the loss and prepare to take on their rivals.

Instead, the team somehow looked even worse.

It’s on the coach to have his team prepared for a game, and Trestman failed miserably. For what it’s worth, he at least owned up to it afterwards.

“It’s like I told our football team at halftime and after the game: ‘We’re not a very good football team right now,’” Trestman said after the game. “We’ve descended over the last three weeks and didn’t make any changes or any positives after the bye, and that all starts with me.”

At surface level, firing a coach after a couple years seems just a little too panic-driven. The process of implementing new schemes on both sides of the ball isn’t something which takes place overnight. If Trestman is indeed fired, there will likely be more than a few people who argue the Bears never gave him a fair chance.

The problem, though, is the way the Bears are losing outweighs the losses themselves. Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker has watched his players get taken to the woodshed on a weekly basis. The offense, despite a list of weapons which would make any team jealous, isn’t getting the job done. Fans are embarrassed. The team hasn’t won a home game. If the Bears were just running into some tough-luck losses, sure, this would be a different story. But all of the aforementioned issues are incredibly difficult to ignore.

Another issue is the fact that, despite coming back with the majority of the same players from last year, the Bears appear to be regressing. Somehow, an offense featuring Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery and Matt Forte now has issues scoring. The defense, though in a rebuild, appears to be falling apart at all angles. Rarely does such a stark decline in performance result in a coach being retained – barring the New York Jets, I guess – and it certainly doesn’t bode well for Trestman.

As mentioned, Chicago’s fate certainly looks sealed at this point. The team is sitting in last in the NFC North, and quite a lot of distance sits between them and the division-leading Detroit Lions. With this in mind, the last half of the season presents very few job-saving opportunities for Trestman. If he turns the Bears’ current 3-6 record into a just barely respectable 8-8, is this enough to grant him another year?

It’s highly unlikely he could even pull this off, both due to future opponents and, more importantly, how the team has played so far this year. Can you really watch highlights of Chicago during these past few weeks and genuinely feel inspired enough to believe they’ve got a turnaround up their sleeves? The Bears just appear lost, and Trestman is now tasked with rallying his team after they gave up 106 points in the past two weeks.

Obviously, life in the NFL is hardly fair when it comes to who receives blame for losses. Again, it’s not 100% Trestman’s fault his players have looked so hapless lately. But, when you’re a head coach and your team plays like a walking disaster, despite having plenty of time to prepare for an opponent, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the finger of blame.

Heads will roll at season’s end, this much is all but guaranteed. Tucker might as well start his job hunt now. GM Phil Emery, who gave Cutler $54 million of guaranteed money this offseason, is likely feeling the temperature rise on his seat as well. These two will face offseason judgment, as will Trestman. The Bears came into the season with playoff expectations, and these have been all but erased by Week 10. Something like this doesn’t result in everyone surviving unscathed.

Do I think Trestman should be fired? It’s tough to say, as you could make an argument to at the very least give him one last chance. However, would I be surprised if he indeed was axed? Not even a little bit. Such is life in the NFL.

Casey Drottar is a Featured Columnist for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @CDrottar19 or “Like” him on Facebook