Is Matt Nagy Really As Bad as Sunday’s Game against the Browns?
The football world has been dog-piling on Matt Nagy and the Bears since one of the worst offensive displays in recent memory took place in Cleveland on Sunday. The game was top draft pick Justin Fields’ debut as a starter, after Nagy’s controversial decision to roll with Andy Dalton as QB1 became a moot point due to a bruised knee. Bears fans had been dreaming for this moment since Fields’ name was called back in April, but it quickly unravelled into a nightmare. The offense mustered 47 total yards, averaging 1.1 yards per play, the 2nd fewest by any team in a game this century, according to CBS Sports. Seeing those stats in a box score, the average fan would guess it was a combination of dominant defensive play and absolutely horrid quarterbacking, like Nathan Peterman’s 5-int half against the Chargers in 2017. Watching the game painted a completely different picture. The Bears offense failed because Matt Nagy produced one of the worst game plans an offense has ever run, while refusing to make a single adjustment as the game went on. Nagy has been to the playoffs in 2 of his 3 seasons with the Bears, winning a COTY award along the way. Could he possibly be as bad of a coach as he showed on Sunday?
To begin answering this question, it is important to differentiate Matt Nagy the coach and motivator, versus Matt Nagy the playcaller. Nagy connects with and motivates his locker room in a way that predecessors John Fox and especially Marc Trestman could never have dreamed of. This tightly-knit locker room has stuck together through thick and thin, riding the back of dominant defenses to gutsy wins and playoff berths. The problem that arises here however, is that Nagy was brought to Chicago to be the genius offensive playcaller. From the Andy Reid tree of spread-out West Coast Offense, Nagy was supposed to revolutionize the franchise that historically played defense and ran the ball year after year, and yet, nothing has changed. Nagy’s first year was a smashing success, at least if you just looked at the box scores, like the NFL award committee must have. A deeper dive into the numbers shows Nagy didn’t do much to improve the miserable 2017 iteration of the John Fox-led Bears offense.
The unit finished 20th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA offensive rankings, 21st in yards per game, and excepting the 40 points scored by the defense — most by any team in 2018 — the Bears averaged 23.8 points per game, which would have had them in the middle of the NFL pack, without adjusting for opponents’ scoring. (NBCsports)
Nagy certainly deserves tons of credit for the 2018 team’s performance. What he does not deserve credit for however, is a good offensive season under his playcalling. The Bears most successful stretch of offense since Nagy took over, was actually when he relinquished his reign of terror on the offense to coordinator Bill Lazor for the second half of 2020, where the Bears averaged 30 points a game, and play-calling actually favored QB Mitchell Trubisky’s skillset, including RPOs and rollouts, rather than shoe-horning him into a style he would never master.
Fast forward to 2021, where Nagy has run through every excuse he possibly could for why his offense is yet to be a success. Supposedly the problem was that same former 2nd overall pick Mitchell Trubisky who Bill Lazor was able to have success with. GM Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy have now hand picked 3 different quarterbacks (Nick Foles, Andy Dalton, Justin Fields,) each one helming a less effective offense than the last. One of Nagy’s most famous quotes, “I’m not an idiot,” certainly looked dubious at best when Justin Fields’ first start was utterly derailed by Myles Garrett’s franchise record 4.5 sacks. It was mind-numbingly infuriating to helplessly watch as Nagy refused to call for chip blocks on Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney, as Fields was either pressured or sacked seemingly a second after receiving the snap every play. Fields only rolled out one time in the first half, something he has shown success doing in the pre-season. Sunday’s performance turned the media wolves on Nagy in the most intense way of his tenure thus far. So intense in fact, reports have circulated out of Halas Hall that a loss against the lowly Lions could be the last game of Nagy’s reign with the Bears. From my perspective however, beating the Lions won’t change the fact that Nagy simply is not the offensive mind we thought we were getting, and if his ego won’t let him cede playcalling to a coordinator, he will always be a detriment to the franchise.