Column: Matt Nagy said ‘you almost can’t even make it up’ how inept the Chicago Bears offense was in Justin Fields’ 1st start. But it’s not hard to imagine when looking at the team’s arc under Nagy.

Matt Nagy’s tenure as Chicago Bears coach reached a crisis Sunday afternoon when his stumbling offense, which has routinely been arrow down since the end of the 2018 season, was worse than ever in rookie quarterback Justin Fields’ first NFL start.

There’s never a good time for a historically bad effort, but having it coincide with the highly anticipated opportunity for Fields makes things especially uncomfortable for Nagy.

Running back David Montgomery broke off a 16-yard run on the first offensive snap after the Bears defense got off the field on fourth down with Robert Quinn and Angelo Blackson sharing a sack of Baker Mayfield. The defense hung tough most of the way, but this team won’t win many games without the benefit of takeaways and there weren’t any.

Montgomery’s nice run moved the Bears to the Browns 37-yard line. Things were looking up even after the drive stalled and Cairo Santos booted a 47-yard field goal to put the visitors ahead 3-0.

Problem is, after that 16-yard run, the Bears gained only 31 net yards the remainder of the game. Fields was sacked nine times — a Browns record — and had X-rays on his throwing hand after the game. They fortunately delivered positive news — maybe the only good news at the end of a 26-6 demolition.

The first-round draft pick from down the road at Ohio State was disastrous in his starting debut. He completed 6 of 20 passes for 68 yards and ran only three times for 12 yards. Somehow he didn’t commit a turnover as the Browns were credited with seven pass breakups — one more than Fields had completions.

It was the lowest offensive output by a Bears offense in 40 seasons since a 23-7 loss to the Detroit Lions on Nov. 22, 1981, when quarterbacks Vince Evans and Bob Avellini split duty on an afternoon the Bears produced only 24 yards. That’s saying something because there have been some terrible Bears offenses over the years.

“You almost can’t even make it up,” Nagy said. “It’s that bad.”

It really isn’t unimaginable when you consider the team’s meandering journey to find the next franchise quarterback to follow Sid Luckman. Even casual observers of the franchise understand the quarterback play can be brutal.

Fields didn’t have a lot of help, not with 39-year-old left tackle Jason Peters trying to prevent Myles Garrett from burying him in the FirstEnergy Stadium turf. Garrett had a career-high 4½ sacks and six of the Browns’ 15 quarterback hits. Leave it to the Bears offensive line to make Jadeveon Clowney look like a big-time pass rusher. Fields, Andy Dalton or whoever is playing quarterback won’t make it through the season if the Bears can’t protect the pocket better.

The game plan didn’t give Fields many opportunities to take advantage of his athletic ability. The team’s best play came on third-and-19 from the Bears 40-yard line. With max protection, Fields rolled right and basically heaved a Hail Mary for Allen Robinson despite Darnell Mooney somehow being uncovered behind him.

The Bears got an exceedingly generous pass interference call against John Johnson, who intercepted the jump ball. The 48-yard penalty set up Santos’ second field goal. The Bears were within 13-6 with 16 minutes, 46 seconds to play. They might as well have been down four touchdowns the way it was going.

There were no second-reaction plays in which Fields was able to burn the defense by extending the action with his athletic ability. He held the ball too long at times. The offense was constantly behind the sticks. It was a complete mess.

You can imagine the Bears being this bad when forced to start a rookie quarterback for the first time on the road with a patchwork offensive line. You can imagine the Bears being this bad when they didn’t make a lot of moves to improve the skill positions during the offseason, handcuffed by the salary cap.

You can imagine Fields didn’t feel like himself afterward. Probably because he never has been pummeled in such a manner.

“Literally while I’m saying this, I’m getting goosebumps because I just don’t like feeling like this,” he said. “So I’m just going to get back and I’m going to work. That’s it.”

Nagy will take the heat for this even after he pointed the thumb after the game.

“There’s the anticipation of the way things go, and I obviously as a head coach did not do a good enough job of getting this offense ready to go, to be able to play and win a football game,” he said. “So it starts with me, ends with me and it’s as simple as that.”

Nagy said the Browns defense set things in place to prevent Fields from getting to the edge of the pocket and making plays. When you run only 42 plays and are 1 for 11 on third down, it’s difficult to establish any sort of rhythm. Whatever the case, he better have answers for this quickly to help Fields bring explosive plays to the offense.

Nagy has been around long enough to understand that he will be the fall guy if there’s not enough “progress” in Fields’ rookie season, to keep going back to the word Chairman George McCaskey used in January about what he’s looking for from Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace in 2021.

The fear when rookie quarterbacks get thrown in too soon, get beat up and struggle is that their confidence starts to go and then mechanics can follow. One wretched start won’t damage Fields, but this was alarming even by Bears standards.

“It’s not going to damage his development because I know who he is and, again, on the sideline, how he was,” Nagy said.

The Bears will dive into determining the “whys” as they prepare to face the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Soldier Field. They will have to be considerably better, or else those making decisions will reach the conclusion that Nagy is the primary why.

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