Chicago Bears: 5 Players who must shine vs. Lions in Week 10

Matt Nagy

Matt Nagy isn’t a player but he needs to step up himself, though. He’s been struggling to try to find answers to this dismay. His playcalling and his handling of Trubisky is causing fans to question whether he was a good choice as coach, despite his success last season.

Nagy is a coach who thinks outside the box. He is similar to Joe Maddon, the former Chicago Cubs manager. Both of them make curious calls to succeed. Maddon made a slew of off the wall decisions on the field. Those decisions ultimately led to an end of the Billy Goat Curse and a World Series win in 2016. In later seasons, his decisions didn’t work as well.

Nagy is on the same boat. His playcalling hasn’t been as successful as it was last season. He hasn’t forgotten how to coach. Additionally, while his plays haven’t turned out well at times, they haven’t all been the wrong calls.

For example, in the Chargers game, he called a basic 10-yard out route throw to Allen Robinson. He was on a one-one-one and the safety was too deep. If Robinson catches the ball he gets a good chunk of yards. What happened was Trubisky threw too wide for an incomplete and they had to punt.

Later in the game, Nagy called a play for Trey Burton. Burton was open and had plenty of green to run on. Trubisky underthrew him and the play ended in an interception. Also, he overthrew a wide-open Taylor Gabriel who could have run it into the end zone for a game-clinching score. On the next play, the Bears lost a fumble and the game.

I’m not saying Nagy is perfect. He’s a little stubborn when it comes to some of his playcalling. He has some trouble trying to help the running game. When things don’t start well, he’ll abandon it and go with the passing game almost exclusively. He needs to find a balance that’s good for the offense. It doesn’t have to be 50-50, just one where you do enough on each side to make the other better.

Nagy needs to come up with a plan to get the offense back on track. He needs to work whatever magic he has left to get a much-needed win.