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After Further Review

3 things that stood out to Nagy in Week 4 win

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After watching tape of Sunday's 24-14 win over the Lions, Bears coach Matt Nagy discussed three things that stood out to him in the game:

(1) Nagy was pleased with the resolve and determination the Bears showed in rebounding from a demoralizing 26-6 loss a week earlier in Cleveland.

Players on offense, especially, were driven to bounce back after being limited to 47 total yards and yielding nine sacks to the Browns. And they did just that, generating 373 yards and three touchdowns while permitting only one sack.

"From the very first play of the game," Nagy said, "you could feel the offensive line, the tight ends, the running backs, the energy, the confidence in saying, 'You know what, we're going to start this game off the right way.'"

That motivation was evident on bruising touchdown runs of 4 and 9 yards by David Montgomery and 4 yards by Damien Williams.

"A couple of those touchdown runs that we had, when you watch the tape, you can really see the finish," Nagy said. "When you put that finish on tape and you see how excited the guys are after they score—the juice, the energy, the vibe—that's what I felt watching the tape last night and this morning offensively.

"All in all, I'm proud of our guys. I'm proud of our coaches and players for standing up. Coming off that week was rough. Everybody wanted to bounce back from that and I thought the players did a great job of responding."

(2) Nagy was also impressed with how well the defense performed, especially in the red zone.

The Bears held the Lions to just one touchdown on five trips inside their 20, with Detroit failing to score after advancing to the Chicago 8, 5, 3 and 8. The drives were halted by two takeaways and two fourth-down stops.

Robert Quinn's strip/sack of Jared Goff produced a fumble that Khalil Mack recovered, and Alec Ogletree leaped high to deflect Goff's pass intended for running back D'Andre Swift, who had broken open in the end zone. The Lions also gifted the Bears a takeaway when an errant snap caromed off Goff and was caught in the air by Bilal Nichols.

"As a team on defense, getting those stops in the red zone was great," Nagy said. "Getting those takeaways was great."

The Bears' starting inside linebackers finished 1-2 on the team in tackles with Ogletree establishing a career high with 12 stops and Roquan Smith adding 10.

"[Ogletree] tipped the ball in the end zone; made a heck of a play there," Nagy said. "Flying around, he was all over the place. I really felt him and Roquan in there getting tackles and doing different things."

The pass rush also continued to produce; with four sacks Sunday, the Bears increased their season total to 15, the most in the NFL.

(3) Nagy saw definitive growth in rookie quarterback Justin Fields, who made his second straight start in place of injured veteran Andy Dalton.

Fields completed 11 of 17 passes for 209 yards with one interception and an 82.7 passer rating. He connected on passes of 64 and 32 yards to Darnell Mooney and 28 and 27 yards to Allen Robinson II.

"When I go back and watch the tape, I thought he saw the coverages pretty good," Nagy said. "There were two high safeties and at the snap [one was] coming down. That's hard as a quarterback no matter who you are. I thought he did a good job of understanding that post-snap.

"In Cleveland, it wasn't always like that every snap. I felt like for all of us, it was more looking at the offense and looking at what was going on with the offensive players. Yesterday, there was a lot of looking at what's going on with the defense. That's a positive step right there for him."

Nagy was impressed with how Fields dealt with the adversity he experienced in the Bears' loss to the Browns. "He's one of the better ones I've been around with that," Nagy said. "For 22 years old, to have that is rare. It started with us Monday morning after that game, is being able to have discussions on why things went the way they did—me as a head coach, him as a quarterback, us as a team—talking through it and saying, 'OK, how do we fix it?'"

Check out the 50 best photos—taken by Bears photographers—from Sunday's Week 4 win over the Lions at Soldier Field.

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