Matt Nagy knows how difficult it is to defeat the Green Bay Packers. Heading into the Sunday night matchup at Lambeau Field, he had one victory against Green Bay since taking over as Chicago’s head coach in 2018.
After the night was over, Nagy added another loss to his now 1-7 record, when the Packers defeated the Bears, 45-30.
After scoring 27 points through the first two quarters and having a six-point lead at halftime, Nagy’s offense reverted back to normal in the second half. The first three offensive drives ended as followed: fumble, punt, punt — a familiar sequence for Bears fans.
On the fourth drive, with the Bears now down by 11 with just over 13 minutes remaining the game, the Bears’ offense faced a fourth-and-inches from their own 36. Nagy decided to punt.
Not only did Bears fans disagree with the decision, so did general manager Ryan Pace.
Pace sat in the elevated second row of the press box, directly behind my seat. His reflection could be seen clearly on the glass that was directly in front. When he saw the punt unit coming on the field, he looked to his right at Josh Lucas — the Bears’ director of player personnel. Pace scowled and shook his head.
For good reason, too. The Packers had scored 17 unanswered points. After the punt, Green Bay went on a 13-play, 71-yard touchdown drive that took 8:38 off the clock. The Packers led 45-27, with just over four minutes left in the quarter.
Pace’s reaction highlighted what he believed was best for the Bears to stay in the game with the Packers. Nagy, in that moment, believed otherwise. A disconnect between two individuals who usually claim they’re in sync.
Matt Nagy not confident in his decision as the Chicago Bears lose to Packers
Nagy admitted he should’ve gone for it during his Monday press conference.
“When they go on that long drive and they take up the clock and score, you wish you would’ve went for it,” Nagy said. “That’s the part that you look back as a coach and you say, ‘Damn, that would’ve been a time to do that.’”
As expected, this isn’t the only time Nagy has had to make a tough decision on a fourth-and-short situation. On the year, the Bears are 9 of 19 on fourth down, a 47.4% conversion rate, which is 21st in the league. In fourth-and-short situations (1 to 3 yards), the Bears are 4 of 7.
Here is one time Nagy has gone for it and another time when he elected to punt.
Week 6: Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay
With Chicago at 3-3 and coming off their first road win of the season against Las Vegas, the Bears had their next challenge with the 5-1 Packers coming to Soldier Field.
In that first meeting, Nagy showed a little more aggressiveness at this point in the season. The Bears scored a touchdown on their opening drive and the defense forced a three-and-out on the next possession.
On the Bears’ second possession, now up 7-0, Justin Fields dove on third-and-5 up the middle to set up a fourth-and-1 from Chicago’s own 49-yard line. The Bears then go to their hurry-up offense and Fields handed the ball off to Khalil Herbert. Packers safety Adrian Amos met Herbert at the line of scrimmage but Herbert spun to convert the chains.
Packers safety Darnell Savage did intercept Fields in the end zone to end that drive. Fields and center Sam Mustipher thought nose tackle Kenny Clark jumped offsides, so they thought they had a free play.
Aaron Rodgers capitalized on the mistake and went on a 12-play drive that ended in a touchdown. Green Bay scored 17 unanswered points in their 24-14 victory.
Matt Nagy doesn’t seem to trust this Chicago Bears team and punts the ball
Week 13: Chicago Bears vs. Arizona
Andy Dalton started the game for the 4-8 Bears since Fields was still recovering from his injured ribs, and things didn’t start off well for Chicago. The first two offensive possessions ended in interceptions, and Dalton would end up throwing four on the day.
But with the Bears down 21-7 with 1:21 remaining in the first half, Chicago’s offense lined up and tried to draw Arizona offsides on a fourth-and-2 from the Cardinals’ 49-yard line. It didn’t work. The Bears were called for a delay of game instead and punted.
Nagy explained his thought process on his decision to not go for it on fourth-and-2.
“Yeah, we tried to get them to jump offsides and they did a good job of holding, but I knew going into that, that’s what we were going to do,” Nagy said. “You could say, ‘yeah, go for it and if you don’t get it, then why did you go for it;’ you give them a short field. We’ve been giving them the short field the whole half. That’s the biggest thing. If you don’t get it, kick the ball to them, see what they can do and they ended up doing nothing from it.”
Yes, the Cardinals didn’t do anything after the punt. However, they got the ball with 1:10 remaining in the half and started on their own 16-yard line, and had just one timeout. So, it’s not really saying much.
Nagy’s decisions to punt in these fourth-down attempts against Arizona and Green Bay are telling. Simply, over the course of the season, he has lost confidence in both his offense and defense to be aggressive in those instances.
Now, at 4-9, it’s tough to see Nagy changing his ways. At this point, it’s doesn’t matter if he does. Unlike Nagy’s indecisiveness to attempt fourth-and-short situations, his job status at the end of the season should be an obvious decision.