Naylor: Bears' loss to Packers was more like a loss of faith

Dave Naylor

TSN Football Insider

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It was a perfect storm.

The Chicago Bears, coming off a humiliating defeat and a bye week to get things corrected, going into Lambeau Field to restore some confidence and their arch rivals.

In Chicago there are two kinds of losses -- those against the Green Bay Packers and those against anyone else. And Packer losses hurt more.

But Sunday wasn't just an ordinary loss. It was more like a loss of faith.

The Bears had two weeks to prepare for Sunday's game at Green Bay but it looked as though they'd had two minutes.

And as it unfolded, head coach Marc Trestman tried to remain the picture of calm although you have to wonder what was swirling around in his head and in his gut as his team was getting steamrolled during a 42-0 first half.
 
It was Trestman like we'd never seen him when he was in Canada. And maybe that's part of the issue.
 
The one thing Trestman never had to manage during his five years in Montreal was a crisis. His team never missed the playoffs, was never in danger of doing so.

All teams face some adversity but it's hard to recall the Alouettes being embroiled in much controversy or difficulty during Trestman's tenure.

He had the CFL's best quarterback every year in Anthony Calvillo, and he managed to bring the best out of him and the Alouette offence.

But Montreal is not Chicago and the thing no one could say for sure was how Trestman would respond under far greater pressure and surrounded by the bigger personalities and egos that are a reality in the NFL.

Trestman was never given a shot to be an NFL head coach before coming to Canada largely because of his cerebral personality and low-key nature, which made it hard to imagine him commanding a locker room with his presence.

In the CFL, his NFL background, which included coaching such players as Bernie Kosar, Rich Gannon and Steve Young, went a long way to garnering the respect of his charges in Montreal.

But in an NFL locker room, his resume alone wouldn't necessarily be enough to earn that. The dynamics are different because the money is so much greater. In Montreal, Trestman would have been earning far more than his players. In Chicago, that's not the case.

Bears general manager Phil Emery understood that hiring an offensive-minded head coach and loading up on that side of the ball might have come with giving something up on defence. And that's exactly what's occurred.

But it was anticipated Trestman would be able to harness the talents of Jay Cutler, something that seemed to be occurring a year ago when both the quarterback's performance and his attitude improved under Chicago's new head coach.

But right now the offence looks as lost as the defence, the execution is poor its and nothing Trestman came up with during the bye week was able to fix it. In short, the Bears look like a team that is lost and the challenge is for Trestman to find a way to rescue his team from this swoon before it's too late to save his own skin.

The fact that Trestman was hired after Lovie Smtih was fired for a 10-win season, and that Emery chose him over Bruce Arians only ups the ante on his future.

The Bears can restore some dignity with Minnesota and Tampa Bay up next on the schedule and they'd better before finishing with four of their final five against Detroit (twice), Dallas, and New Orleans.

Marc Trestman going from Montreal to the NFL just as Marv Levi did all those years ago would have been a wonderful football narrative had it all worked out for the Bears.

But the reality has been something altogether different.