Mitch Trubisky is getting a large chunk of the blame for the Chicago Bears losing to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. A loss that ended their playoff hopes. This might come across as surprising. Trubisky threw for 334 yards and ran for 29 more. He did throw two interceptions but one of those came on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half. It wasn’t a great game but was he the main reason they lost? No. That honor should be reserved for head coach Matt Nagy.
People have criticized him all year for his play calling issues. Sometimes it’s justified but others it can be a bit overblown. However, this time it was 100% on him. Why? Namely because he abandoned the style of offense that had finally started to bring the Bears offense some success in the past three or four weeks. One that involves getting Trubisky on the move, shifting the pocket and changing launch points to help slow down opposing pass rushes.
Despite facing a really good Green Bay Packers front on the road, one that had sacked Trubisky five times in their previous meeting, Nagy chose to not only lean away from that type of game plan. He basically abandoned it altogether. The Bears quarterback threw 53 passes total in that game. No fewer than 51 of them were straight dropbacks with no rollout or play action bootleg.
This big play to Anthony Miller was one of those two.
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Matt Nagy proved again his lack of common sense
Nobody is disputing whether Nagy is a smart coach. He absolutely is. His ability to design plays is actually quite impressive. The problem is there is a significant difference between play designing and play calling. Designing can be done through study. Calling is more of an instinctive thing. Knowing the plays is only part of it. Knowing when to call them is the other and it’s this part that Nagy continues to struggle with. His lack of common sense remains a serious problem.
Rather than use the offensive approach that was finally starting to get things clicking for his team, he essentially reverted to the exact same game plan he used against the Packers back on opening night. Is it any surprise the results were basically the same? He had Trubisky throw the ball a total of 98 times between those two games, refusing to commit to running it. Proving again that despite what he says, he just can’t stick with the ground game if he senses it’s not working right away.
That is not what smart play callers do.
It’s little wonder that Trubisky was so frustrated after the game, even calling out the scheme approach and how it put way too much stress on what was an undermanned offensive line in a hostile environment.
“I felt like we could’ve taken more pressure off [the O-line] moving the pocket a little more and I getting out, but the [Packers rush] has done a great job of that all year long and that’s what they hang their hat on and they did that today.”
He has every right to feel that way because it’s true. It would’ve been one thing if Nagy employed that type of attack and it simply didn’t work. This was far worse because he didn’t even try. He played right into the Packers’ hands and that is unforgivable.
