The Chicago Bears’ offense has struggled with head coach Matt Nagy handling all the playcalling. It’s time for him to either get help from offensive coordinator Bill Lazor or hand over the playcalling to him.
The Chicago Bears suffered an embarrassing loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams in Week 7. The offense again struggled to move the ball. Even when the offense had a good drive going, turnovers or bad penalties killed it.
Ever since he became the Bears head coach, Matt Nagy has called all the plays. He came to Chicago as an offensive guru, learning from one of the best coaches in the NFL, Andy Reid. About two and a half seasons into his tenure, the Bears still haven’t found an offensive identity. They also haven’t been very good.
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Rank, Points Scored
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Rank, Yards Gained |
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2018
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9th |
21st |
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2019
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29th |
29th |
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2020
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27th |
29th |
As you can see above, the Chicago Bears offense hasn’t exactly been lighting up the scoreboard. Even in 2018, when the offense ranked ninth in scoring, a lot of that was due to the defense forcing an incredible 47 turnovers and scoring six touchdowns off those turnovers. The points boosted the offense’s total and the turnovers helped the offense take over with good field position. That field position also made it a little easier to get points. You can see, however, when the defense hasn’t been a turnover machine the last season and a half, the offense’s point production suffered.
Now, people will say that the blame goes to a bad offensive line, poor quarterback play, etc. While that is true, there is also another reason for the struggles — Nagy’s playcalling.
Nagy’s playcalling hasn’t been stellar
Nagy hasn’t been good at calling plays. Sure, a lot of his plays resulted in open receivers. The problem is that he called plays knowing that his quarterback, Mitch Trubisky, wasn’t able to pull off. Now he has a quarterback who can make the plays in Nick Foles, but Nagy calls plays that Foles knows won’t work or he goes against something Foles sees on the field he feels he could exploit.
Clock management has also been a problem for Nagy. Yes, the Bears beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers, but Nagy made some head-scratching calls that threatened those wins. In both games, he had a chance to force the other teams to use their final timeout and run down the clock. Instead, he called a pass play on both occasions. Of course, the passes were incomplete and time stopped without the opponents using their timeouts.
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Speaking of calling unnecessary pass plays, Nagy continues to stubbornly avoid including the running game in the offense. He constantly gives his running backs nominal carries. David Montgomery had only 14 carries against the Rams — exactly seven in each half. Additionally, Cordarralle Patterson has 25 carries all season long and he has trouble even getting to the line of scrimmage, let alone gaining yards. Montgomery is working by himself. Tarik Cohen is out for the season. His injury happened almost five weeks ago, yet there is no help for Montgomery. They signed Lamar Miller but they aren’t ready yet to have him play. They already have Artavis Pierce on the team but for some reason, they have him inactive. Let’s not talk about Le’Veon Bell being available and the Bears missing an opportunity.
With Montgomery needing help, Nagy is trying to turn him into another Cohen. For the season, Montgomery has 33 targets for 184 yards and a touchdown. In 2019, he had 35 targets for 185 yards and a touchdown. In this week’s game, he’ll surpass last season’s total.
Nagy needs to give up playcalling or get help
It’s time for Nagy to give up playcalling duties. He’s shown that he’s not ready for it. He’s a great leader and the players love him to death. However, his playcalling is holding the team back. He stubbornly refuses to give up that card, though. If that’s the case, then he should at least involve offensive coordinator Bill Lazor more in the playcalling. Furthermore, put Lazor up in the booth so he could be the eye in the sky that a lot of teams utilize. He can have a better angle to see what’s going on and help enhance the playcalling.
What’s happening now is not working and if it continues the Chicago Bears could be on the outside looking into the playoff picture and things will certainly be difficult in the offseason. Nagy still has a strong record during his tenure in Chicago, but if this season goes down the drain after a good start like last season (they started out 3-1 before losing four straight and finishing 8-8) his seat could be hot.
