Chicago Bears: Matt Nagy reaching desperation in his low point

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy’s actions seem to show a sign of desperation and a low point in his coaching career.

The Chicago Bears host the Detroit Lions on Sunday in a Week 4 matchup. Despite the Lions owning a winless record (0-3), this game is no gimme. The Lions have played well enough to win at least two games but ultimately failed to win any.

For all the bad luck the Lions have suffered, they are a scrappy team. Remember last season, in Week 13, when the Bears led throughout the game. In fact, with just over two minutes left in the game, they had a 30-20 lead. The Lions kept at it, however, and scored two touchdowns to win 34-30.

As bad as the Bears looked last week, they have to be on upset alert. If they fail to move the ball again and struggle to score points they could be looking at another bad loss. Should that happen, all hell will break loose in Chicago. The Chicago Bears have never fired a coach during the season but that could change if this embarrassment continues.

Chicago Bears fans already want Nagy’s head after a pathetic effort at coaching. His game plan was pedestrian, and when it didn’t work he failed to make any adjustments. He failed to make basic calls. For example, knowing how aggressive the Cleveland Browns’ pass rush was, Nagy didn’t call short route plays like screens or slants.

Furthermore, he didn’t have the tight ends or running backs chip either Myles Garrett or Jadeveon Clowney, who combined for 6.5 sacks in the game.

Matt Nagy’s actions raise questions

Nagy’s play-calling was so bad last week that some people openly questioned if he was purposely sabotaged rookie quarterback Justin Fields.

It is important to note that Dan Orlovsky’s criticism really hits hard. In the weeks leading up to the draft, he repeated rumors questioning Fields’ work ethic. The Ohio State coaches and Fields’ teammates all refuted those rumors. To now have a Fields critic talk about how Nagy failed Fields and perhaps did it intentionally is really something.

This week, Nagy did even more to raise eyebrows. First, he kept harping on the idea that Fields hurt his hand in last week’s game enough to possibly miss this week’s game. At the postgame press conference, Fields admitted that he did get hit on the hand, but that the team had an MRI done and everything came out negative. He also stated that his hand felt fine.

That wasn’t enough for Nagy, however. He said that all three quarterbacks, Fields, Andy Dalton, and Nick Foles, were in the mix to start this week. In fact, he presumably had the team back up his bogus claim by bringing in free agent quarterbacks for a tryout.

Nagy is trying his best to keep Fields buried on the bench. If that was the case, he should never have named him the backup quarterback.

In addition to playing games with the quarterbacks, Nagy is also playing games in terms of play-calling. In one of his press conferences this week, he refused to say who would call the plays this week. Many critics point out how the offense improved when offensive coordinator Bill Lazor took over play-calling last season.

Reporters asked him if that would happen again. Early in the week, he said everything was on the table. Later on, however,  he said he was “going to keep it internal” and wouldn’t confirm or deny a change.

The next move was a pretty peculiar one. It was reported that Nagy went to the players and asked them what they thought should be done with the offense.

Yes, empowering the players and getting their inputs are important. At this moment, though, Nagy is the one who needs to lead. He is the head coach and that’s what he is paid to do. Why is the supposed offensive guru asking the players what to do?

This smacks of desperation. Nagy held onto play-calling while the offense continually ranked at or near the bottom in nearly every category. Now it seems that he feels uncomfortable with the heat on his seat. Now, suddenly, he’s willing to do what it takes to win games? It seems more like he’s willing to do what it takes to save his job.