Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy continues to fail, already time to blow this team up
What’s interesting is that many of Matt Nagy’s play designs are actually not bad. He has a creative mind when it comes to the offensive side of the ball. However, as a former pocket quarterback, he struggles to use players like Trubisky and Justin Fields properly. He does not run plays that work well with their skill sets. Nagy also struggles to adjust during a game. We saw that horribly today versus the Cleveland Browns.
How many times does it take for Justin Fields to get hit before an adjustment is made? Myles Garrett set a single-game franchise record with 4.5 sacks and the Browns walked away with a total of nine on the day.
The pocket was not moved nearly enough. Using the RPO and run-pass option is right up Fields’ alley, but it wasn’t working. This is partly because the Bears could not establish a run game. David Montgomery ran the ball 10 times for 34 yards and only a 3.4 yards-per-carry average.
There are things that Matt Nagy could have done differently though. When a defense gets as aggressive as the Cleveland Browns did versus Justin Fields, then Nagy needs to change things up for a bit. Remember Week 1 when Andy Dalton was getting rid of the ball in less than three seconds, but the ball didn’t travel far enough downfield? That is actually something Nagy should have went back to here for a while.
Quick slants and screens are ways to combat quick defensive pass rushes. These calls were not made nearly enough. An up-tempo offense can help too, that was not really seen enough either. Then, you can try to use the run a bit to open things up deep downfield. This is where Nagy got it wrong in Week 1. He had the run game going, but didn’t use play-action to throw the ball deeper than 10 yards.
See, it hardly works out that an offense can go into a game with one gameplan and it works the entire game. Once the defense knows you are going to constantly zig, then you hit them with a few zags. This has to keep going back and forth as you keep the defense guessing. Cleveland knew exactly what Matt Nagy was going to do on every play and it showed.
Matt Nagy said it best in his press conference when he said it starts and ends with me. Well, the end should be near. It’s too early to fire Nagy (I probably would but I’m emotionally invested as you are), but if I am Ryan Pace, I’m telling Nagy he needs to hand play-calling over to Bill Lazor now and see what happens.
I’d also be forcing Justin Fields to continue to start. This will likely cause a rift between the two, but if Pace wants to keep his job in the future, this is the only way I see how he can prove he’s worthy of sticking around while Matt Nagy is shown the door.