Chicago Bears’ Head Coach Matt Nagy seems to lack confidence in his players, especially Mitchell Trubisky
If I had to choose one word to associate this year’s Chicago Bears season, it would be utterly disheartening. After finishing 12-4 last season and losing in the playoffs on a doink, I thought for sure this was going to be the year. I even ignored all the skeptics that claimed the Bears would regress. As the year began there was hope, but as we move towards Week 9 of the season, any hope of a Bears destined Super Bowl appearance is quickly fading.
While there has been a lot of comeback teams in the NFL’s 100 seasons, I’m quickly realizing that this team is not going to be one of them. The NFC has stellar teams right now, and even if this Chicago Bears team were able to squeeze out a 10-6 record, it’s almost certain that wouldn’t be enough. Also, that means the Chicago Bears would have to go on a 7-2 run, and after witnessing countless struggles I do not see that happening.
There are many things wrong with this Chicago Bears unit. When things go awry we have to immediately look at the man in charge. To me, Nagy’s lack of confidence with his team is beginning to resonate in his play calling. There is nothing like building your team up, to tell them that I have no faith in you.
We are past the point of Nagy telling us that this game is in the past, we need to find leaders, the offense needs to produce, we need to run, our team will fight through adversity, something needs to change, blah blah blah. At this point, this season is sniffing out to be an 8-8 year. What is even worse, Bears fans will once again have to suffer through the Packers dominating the division.
Coach Nagy has been horrendous at play-calling this season. I’m beginning to question whether his scheme is that abysmal or does he have an offense that can’t comprehend what he is throwing at them? There were two standout play calls during the Chargers game that proved Nagy is calling certain plays because he has lost confidence in his offense and the ability of his quarterback.
First, came on a 3rd down in the red zone where Nagy opted to run opposed to passing the ball. It shows that Nagy feels more confident in running the ball where it should have been a pass. For a quarterback that has been showing lack of poise each week, it would have been nice to show some support for Mitchell Trubisky and let him sling it.
Now granted, each of Trubisky’s throws were getting scarier with each attempt. However, it would have been nice to show Trubisky a little reassurance with a “hey man we got this, keep pushing.”
Another example happened towards the end of the game where there were roughly around 45 seconds left. Nagy had the offense just let the clock run off to kick a field goal? In his presser, he commented that he was concerned with all the what-if scenarios.
For example, what if we fumble? What if we lose yards? What if there is an interception? At some point, you have to stop questioning all the potential negative scenarios and let your offense pound that rock and set up a chip shot for your kicker.
This season has been disheartening and what makes it worse is watching a depleted Bears team tank the last three weeks. All teams will have struggles, but it’s the coaching staff’s job to address and begin to fix those problems. When you have a coach that begins to distrust a team’s ability then this will evidentially lead to a team that will not only have a losing record but a relinquished sense of pride.
My advice to Coach Nagy is to not become the second coming of Marc Trestman, but become the second coming of Lovie Smith. However, this time with a Super Bowl ring to show for it. You worked so hard to gain this teams’ respect and to build a culture and identify. Don’t be that coach who loses confidence in his players and result tarnishes the hard work you have put into rejuvenating this franchise.