The Matt Nagy offense showed up bigtime in the season opener for the Chicago Bears. Or at least it did for one half. During that time the unit executed well, found a rhythm and distributed the ball, keeping the Packers defense on their heels. Mitch Trubisky looked sharp and his receivers were getting open.
Then a dreaded sense of deja vu occurred. In the second half, leading 20-0, the offense seemed to lose steam. They suffered through a slew of 3-and-outs. They couldn’t find any juice and the Packers took advantage. By the time they finally started to move the ball again, they couldn’t avoid costly mistakes. Most notably with their play calling.
Nagy put that on himself after the game. There were a number of plays he wished he could have back, not liking the calls that were made. The reasons why it went wrong are plentiful, but there is one issue that sits at the heart of the matter. One that has less to do with the plays that Nagy called and more the ones he didn’t.
The Bears went silent when Matt Nagy and Trubisky stopped attacking
Nagy himself said that one thing this offense was going to do moving forward was take shots down the field. They were going to be fearless and let it fly. At least for one half, he kept that promise. On the first two drives of the game for Chicago, Mitch Trubisky fired one deep pass on each, going for 31 yards to Taylor Gabriel and 33 yards to Allen Robinson respectively. The Bears scored 10 points on those drives.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
From there? Trubisky did not attempt another deep pass until 1:54 left in the game. By that point, the Packers knew it was coming and both attempts fell incomplete. That made for four total in the game. By contrast, Green Bay threw four deep passes in the first half alone and eight for the game. They weren’t afraid to attack and in the end, they won.
Want an idea for how important this is for the Bears and Trubisky? Just look at last season. In his 12 starts, the young quarterback averaged over seven yards per pass attempt in five games. He went 72-of-113 for 981 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, and a 100.2 passer rating. The Bears were 4-1 in those games.
New Bears coach Matt Nagy has a message to himself on his play sheet: “Be you.” pic.twitter.com/iuMI9v2bDv
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) September 10, 2018
Oh and just for context? Last year as offensive coordinator of the Chiefs, Nagy was 9-5 in games where his quarterbacks topped that mark. They averaged 29.14 points.
Mitch is not yet at that point where he can pick apart a defense like a classic West Coast quarterback. He likes to be aggressive. He likes to go down the field whenever possible. Nagy promised him that much when he took over. Next time he should look to keep it for 60 minutes instead of 15.
