Justifying Matt Nagy on Mitch Trubisky’s hip

Everyone is calling out Matt Nagy for his benching of Mitch Trubisky with a questionable hip injury. Here is a devils advocate take

The benching of Mitch Trubisky shook headlines late in the fourth quarter of a close loss to the LA Rams. The official word was late to get in, and head coach Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky had slightly different renditions of the timeline.

Mitch Trubisky mentioned a play in the second quarter where he first got hurt. Matt Nagy said that he only started to know of it during the last couple of drives. This sounds sloppy on the surface, but consider this.

Mitch Trubisky did injure his hip in the second quarter. You can see that noted former NFL doctor, Dr. Chao links a clip that Nagy later confirmed as the play.

However, note the text. The Dr says that while the hit would cause Trubuisky to be “hurt”, he may not have been “injured” on that play.

Many football fans know the old quote that if you are hurt, you can still play, but if you are injured you cannot. Trubisky was hurt on that play.

So, when Trubisky got checked out at the half, and was cleared to play, and said he thought he could play, it was not he mind of Nagy when it came to his play calling.

Every player plays hurt at this point in the NFL season. Even quarterbacks have been banged up and bruised. Jacoby Brissett sprained his MCL and ran in a huge touchdown two weeks later. Brissett is playing hurt but is doing his job.

We know what happened when Aaron Rodgers was hurt against the Bears last season. Patrick Mahomes, Carson Wentz- quarterbacks have played hurt. Playing hurt happens and you do not gameplan around a hurt player on the field.

Trubisky even had his best drive of the game in the third quarter. This eased Nagy’s concerns as Trubisky is a tough NFL player, and all NFL players play hurt. However. as the game went on, it appears Trubisky was actually injured. He was treated at the half, but the lack of movement made things worse.

So, in the second to last drive, Matt Nagy called an option on third down. One thing we have talked about all season is that the biggest difference in the 2018 and 2019 offense is that Trubisky has relied far less on extending plays with his legs and rushing the football in general.

Was it because of injuries in 2018 and 2019? Was it the play calling., or even a mandate to develop Trubisky from the top? Whatever the case, Trubisky needed to use his legs more to keep the offense flowing.

So, when Nagy called an option on third and one it was not a bad call, and it may have worked. However, his quarterback did not do his part.

Trubisky could not stand in long enough to draw the defender in. The defender did not have to commit and shut down both paths. He did not do his part and left his team out to take a hit for a loss to avoid a hit himself. That is when Nagy realized that whether the Doctor or Trubisky himself said that they were good enough to play, he was not healthy enough to play.

Maybe he is cleared as the doctors seem to say. Maybe it is a mental thing that he was afraid to take that hit. The issue is that if the Bears want to run a stable offense, he is going to have to use his legs, and eventually take hits.

Patrick Mahomes with an injured leg would stand in and take a hit on an option to convert a first down. Even Brissett would.

That is when it had to be asked once again whether Trubisky was hurt or injured.

The option is not a bad call, even if Nagy knew about the hip injury. The fact that Trubisky did not execute it confined that Nagy needed to pull his quarterback. Trubisky had to admit to himself. Whether it be mental or not, that he was not in the right space to be playing that game. That he was truly injured.