Chicago Bears: Is a revolt brewing on the offensive side of the ball?

Matt Nagy wrongfully obsesses over his playbook, but cannot call plays well

I have been writing for two years that Nagy obsesses way too much over his playbook. In 2019, I wrote that it appears Nagy had Mitch Trubisky spending way too much time learning his big playbook and not enough time on improving his footwork and learning how to read defenses.

It is so obvious that Nagy needs to spend much more of his time digesting what is happening on the field as opposed to mulling over his playlist. This way he can incorporate into his play-calling what he has seen and is feeling based on how the game is unfolding. It is, very likely, this pattern has not only created a disconnect between his play calls and the flow of the game but also a disconnect between him and his players.

When I was looking for signs of this in 2019, I took note of a comment Mitch Trubisky made in a post-game presser. He said after a loss, “We need to trust the offense.” Why bring this up unless there is a question of trusting Nagy’s offense?

If Nagy paid more attention to his players versus his playlist, he would be much more aware if they are tired, unfocused, struggling, etc. That would certainly make him a better play-caller. For example, as mentioned, Graham was having a bad game and dropped an easy pass in a critical situation. If he was paying attention to Graham’s struggles maybe he targets this pass to Kmet instead of Graham.

Kmet was on the field for 30 snaps. He saw one target. Graham had seven targets and caught two. Ironically, Nagy may have called his best game of the season against the Saints. However, in typical Nagy fashion, he still found ways to sabotage the momentum he created by attacking the Saints’ secondary downfield. Regretfully, this is the standard operating procedure for Matt Nagy.

His pattern has been to abandon plays that work well but repeat plays that do not. It’s like he has to prove that every play he calls can ultimately work. It almost seems like Nagy is afraid of his own success. If this is in fact true, Nagy really needs to get some advice from someone he trusts who can be objective and brutally honest with him.

What makes all of this worse for Nagy and the Chicago Bears is he invariably makes these self-destructive decisions at the most critical junctures of a game. For example, late in the game in the red zone against one of the best run defenses in the NFL, Nagy calls for two straight runs to nowhere.

Troy Aikman was once again unimpressed. This is Nagy for the umpteenth time doing the unexpected and it fails. Then he, finally, has Foles throw a pass in the endzone to Mooney in the far right of the endzone and it results in a TD.