After a brief respite from the reign of Matt Nagy due to his covid diagnosis, he will return to coach the Bears against the Steelers in week 9. While week 8’s absence may not have resulted in a win, it was a glimpse of a future most Bears fans have been waiting for.
Despite his reputation as an offensive guru, Nagy has overseen one of the most frustrating offensive units in the league for three and a half seasons. With only one winning record to his name, Nagy has already burned through three starting QB’s before now turning to rookie Justin Fields.
While Mitchell Trubisky was supposed to be the saviour, he was never able to put the team on his back. With Nagy trading for Nick Foles to do that, even though that’s not Foles game, and then signing an ageing Andy Dalton, even though that’s also not Dalton’s game.
MATT NAGY’s REIGN OF BOREDOM WILL SOON BE OVER
Even now with Justin Fields somehow falling into the range where Chicago could make a decent trade up to get him, Matt Nagy continues to put him in position to fail rather than using his skills. Consistently putting his QB in third down situations where he has no choice but to try and force the ball.
While play-calling may have been passed to Bill Lazor, this offence reeks of the meddling hands of the incompetent head coach. The Bears run on 59.8% of first downs, and 52.1% of second down. Leaving the offence with an average of more than 4 yards to go on every third down play they pass the ball 72.6% of the time.
Those kind of tendencies make it really hard on a QB. And when you throw in the fact that your QB is also a rookie, it almost makes you wonder if Nagy enjoys losing.
It’s fine to be a run first team, but if you consistently run on first-down AND run on second-down you better be getting a lot of first down’s on those runs. But the Bears get a first down on 37.6% of those second-down runs.
This isn’t to say Justin Fields hasn’t had his rookie struggles because he certainly has. But his completion percentage drops a clear 10-points from second down (63.64%) to third down (53.33%). Coupled with the fact that five of Fields seven interceptions have come on 3rd down just highlights how much harder things are.
And if you want to see one stat that drives home how bad it is to run on first and second down and set your QB up to have to throw on third down I present you with this. On first and second down Fields averages 6.75 and 5.93 yards per attempt. On third down, when everyone is expecting pass it drops to 0.56 yards per attempt.
So it’s time for Matt Nagy to go. It may not happen mid-season but it will happen very soon and I for one will not waste any time mourning the loss of this ‘offensive genius’.
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