Chicago Bears: 5 Reasons why they are Super Bowl contenders

4. Matt Nagy’s playcalling under pressure

After a miserable three seasons under John Fox, the Chicago Bears knew what they didn’t want. They went in the complete opposite direction. Instead of a head coach with a run-first philosophy, they went with a more complex offensive system.

They hired Matt Nagy to freshen up their offense. Nagy ran an up-tempo system that makes the quarterback look good. Alex Smith had his best season under Nagy and Patrick Mahomes became the league MVP running that same system after sitting for a year and learning the system.

Nagy came in to do the same for Trubisky. The Bears drafted him to be the face of the franchise and to change the team’s fortune at quarterback. While some of the greatest running backs and linebackers have worn Chicago Bears uniforms, they haven’t had the same luck with quarterbacks. They hope Trubisky can change that.

In Nagy’s first season, the offense looked very different. It looked like one that belonged in the current NFL and not one from the 1960s. Trubisky took a big step forward. The offense ranked ninth in total points scored.

In addition to Nagy’s great offensive mind, his playcalling was out of the box. He had a variety of trick plays in his bag and he wasn’t afraid to use them. His trick plays kept opposing defenses off-kilter.

Some critics say Nagy ran too many trick plays and got lucky on some of them. Yes, some of them backfired, but the majority worked similar to regular play calls that sometimes work and sometimes don’t.

Nagy is cool under pressure. He shows emotions on the sidelines but is even-keeled when calling plays. Sports Info Solutions ran data on how each team reacted to big plays. A lot of teams showed predictable reactions, but Nagy’s playcalling wasn’t predictable. He didn’t overreact to either a negative or positive play. He showed a consistency that keeps the team balanced in big situations.

We saw that in the playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a close battle throughout the game. When the Eagles scored the go-ahead touchdown late in the game, Trubisky calmly and coolly drove the offense and got it in position for a makeable 43-yard field goal attempt for the win.

We can be sure that with Nagy calling plays the team will be in good shape. They won’t be too high or too low. No matter what happens, the moment won’t be too much for the players.