More evidence of Matt Nagy’s flaw as Chicago Bears head coach
Moving back to more current events, there were many reasons why the Bears lost to the Packers last Sunday. However, I believe that the main reason the Bears lost this game was that Matt Nagy called a lot of plays that day. He just could not control his compulsion to involve himself calling plays in this pivotal game.
The main evidence of Nagy calling plays was the Bears ran less and threw more passes around the line of scrimmage than they had since Bill Lazor took over as their play-caller. There is a long history of West Coast Offense play-callers calling an inordinate amount of passes within five to ten yards off the line of scrimmage and failing miserably in big games. They typically consider it their smart safe move. However, this tactic among other things lacks courage and often demoralizes the offensive players.
When the Bears substituted short passes for some run plays to control the time of possession, they lost one of the most important battles of a football game. They lost the intimidation factor. Football players need their emotions to override the physical pain and mental exhaustion that comes from a hard-fought battle.
When a football team is winning the battle of who controls the line of scrimmage, it creates big-time confidence and big waves of energy that courses throughout the entire offensive unit. This tactic is the fatal flaw of practitioners of the West Coast Offense. They often eschew run plays for lots and lots of short passes.
To make my point, it was not just the reshuffling of the players in the offensive line that made them a better group. It was also letting them dominate at the line of scrimmage by calling more run plays. This fueled the Bears’ offensive line in playing a big part in the Bears’ late-season surge to the playoffs.
Nagy and Lazor should have countered a Packers loaded front with more manpower instead of reverting to short passes. They could have called a lot of double and triple tight end sets to move the line of scrimmage enough to spring the tough elusive David Montgomery.