Matt Nagy has to be the most depressed head coach of a 5-2 football team in recent memory. Such is the reality of the situation he’s put himself in. When the Chicago Bears hired him, it was for two reasons. They wanted him to win football games and to finally fix an eternally broken offense. So far, he’s only achieved half his objective.
While the Bears have yet to post a losing record with Nagy in charge, their offense keeps finding new rock bottoms to hit seemingly every week. Their ugliest moment of 2020 arrived out in Los Angeles where the Rams held them to just three points the entire game. The running game was absent (again) and Nick Foles was picked off twice.
A big part of the problem was the game plan.
Nagy made a host of head-scratching decisions. He was predictable and clearly didn’t seem to have a cohesive idea of what he wanted to do. Too many times it felt like he was calling plays at random in hopes they’d work. He had no feel for the situations and as a result the offensive never found any semblance of a rhythm.
It was yet another humbling experience for the 42-year old. He admitted after the game he’d never been part of anything like this. Never seen this level of ineptitude up close. Many thought it was the quarterback. However, things seem to have only gotten worse since shifting from Mitch Trubisky to the less mobile Nick Foles.
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Left searching for answers, Nagy admitted on Tuesday for the first time that everything is on the table in terms of making changes. That includes him giving up the call sheet.
I asked Matt Nagy if he would consider relinquishing the Bears' play-calling duties. He will continue on for now, but spoke honestly about why he would be willing to do so. pic.twitter.com/KwAAyClSfM
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) October 27, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGeO4c233eI&ab_channel=ChicagoBears
Matt Nagy isn’t there yet but he’s clearly swaying
That is the first time Nagy showed any change in his confidence as the man running this offense. Clearly, the loss dealt him a sizable blow. So why the reluctance? Based on other comments made during the press conference, a lot of the concerns are centered on the offensive line. Which, to be fair, are perfectly valid.
The talent questions were already there up front when all five guys were healthy. Since James Daniels went down? It got a lot worse in a hurry. In L.A., Foles was pressured 20 times and sacked four times. Aaron Donald lived in the backfield all night and even Leonard Floyd had two sacks. It was a total mismatch and everybody could see it.
Years of neglect finally came back to haunt them.
Ryan Pace has done a lot of good things as GM but failing to invest a 1st round pick in the offensive line during his tenure is looming large these days. This group has no stars to speak of. They’re trying to get by with average veterans and a pair of decent former 2nd round picks in Daniels and Cody Whitehair.
Will a different play caller make these guys block better? Probably not. The idea would be finding somebody who can find more ways to mask the issue. Nagy hasn’t been able to.