John Fox has to take accountability
John Fox has been inept all season, and it showed in the brightest of stages on Monday Night Football
The Chicago Bears are a poorly coached team. There is almost no way around that at this point. Whether it be the starting quarterback decisions, in-game adjustments or play calls involving the clock and/or down and distance, Fox has butchered decisions in every category this season.
On Monday Night Football, his team only lost by three points despite being worse on third down, turning the ball over two more times and losing the time of possession. The most bizarre Fox moment of the season likely came in this national spotlight game so that America could see what Bears fans have been dealing with for the past three years.
It is fourth and two. It is the second drive of the career of Mitchell Trubisky. Things got going a bit on the first drive but a penalty killed it. Still, momentum for the young kid is still brewing. Trubisky just completed a ten-yard pass to Zach Miller moving Trubisky to 5-6 on the night for 37 yards.
Most who know John Fox know he loves to punt in this situation. Nothing gets him going more than good field position for his defense. However, after some intense debate, Fox understands that he needs to keep the momentum rolling for his young and confident quarterback and he needs to go for it.
Of course, he thought of this too late, and the play clock wound down, forcing him to take a timeout.
Once you take a timeout, you have to go for it. At the Vikings 38-yard line, the punter would have been better off getting the room from a five-yard penalty than having the team waste a timeout. I repeat, a wasted timeout to punt the ball in this situation is completely negligible and should not even be on the table.
Of course, Fox first sends out his punt unit. This is apparently to fake out the Vikings. If I know the Bears didn’t call a timeout to punt the football, guess what, so do the Vikings. The goofy fake does absolutely nothing, except confuse the referees.
The referees have kicking balls separate from the actual game balls. When Fox sent out his punt unit, the kicking ball went out. When Fox decided, ultimately too late to pull the old switcheroo, there was not enough time to sub one ball out for the other.
Fox wanted the refs to reset the play clock. However, because Fox initially chose his punt unit, the refs do not even have to trade out the kicking ball. It is at their discretion to switch out the balls and if there is a play clock issue, it is the team who sent out the wrong unit first responsible. That is exactly what happened, and as the play clock struck down, the team took a delay of game.
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Fox complained after the game, clearly showing he did not understand the rule. From the hot start and momentum building, Fox ruins it all, forces a punt and puts his quarterback on the shelf to watch his defense. From that point on Trubisky went 10-19 for 91 yards. These are the decisions that end drives, kill momentum and force this team to lose one-score games at home. John Fox has to be held responsible, and he has to take accountability.