Matt Nagy had another rough game as a play caller for the Chicago Bears. It boiled down to two instances. In the first half it was his incredible unwillingness to run the football in power formation. This despite gashing the Chargers with it all game long. Then it was his baffling choice to kneel on the ball in the final seconds to set up a 41-yard field goal rather than try one more play to put the ball closer. They did have a timeout left. However, the Chicago Bears chose to just go for the win.
Then Eddy Pineiro missed the field goal.
Nagy was naturally bombarded with questions after the game about why he made the decision to kneel on the ball rather than run another play. The coach didn't seem enthusiastic about hearing them. Over and over again he insisted that he wasn't getting into that stuff. The coaches made the call to do what they did. There was no second-guessing. However, Nagy may have betrayed himself a bit.
When asked why he didn't consider throwing the ball since the defense was clearly stacking up for the run, his answer spoke incredible volumes about Mitch Trubisky and the trust (or lack thereof) the coach has in him.
Matt Nagy was justified in that statement
People will say Nagy should've trusted his quarterback to make a play in that situation. That would mean they'd willingly ignore what had happened on the previous drive. One that saw Trubisky take an awful sack that knocked the Bears out of field goal range and forcing them to punt. Nagy had that play in the back of his mind during the entire final sequence. Can anybody truly blame him for not wanting to put the ball in Trubisky's hands with Joey Bosa, who had two sacks already, waiting for another chance?
Trubisky has done nothing to earn the trust of his head coach at this point. The 25-year old has missed more wide open receivers in the past one and a half seasons than Tom Brady has probably missed his entire career. His decision-making remains erratic and it's clear the game is moving way too fast for him. Nagy has done everything in his power to make things easier for him. It's not working. At some point, a coach has to stop trusting a guy who hasn't given him enough reasons to.
